272 


I.N-MEMO.RY;-. 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


TRIBUTE 


MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 


tije 


EDWARD    EVERETT, 


JANUARY  30,  18G5. 


MASSACHUSETTS      HISTORICAL      SOCIETY 
1865. 


TRIBUTE 


MASSACHUSETTS    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 


A  SPECIAL  Meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  was 
held  in  the  Dowse  Library  on  Monday  evening,  January  30, 
1865,  to  commemorate  their  late  illustrious  associate,  Edward 
Everett.  The  attendance  was  very  large. 

.  The  meeting  was  called  to  order  at  7i-  o'clock  by  the  President, 
the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  who  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY: 

The  occasion  of  this  meeting  is  but  too  well  known  to 
you  all.  None  of  us  were  strangers  to  the  grief  which 
pervaded  this  community  on  the  recent  announcement  of 
the  death  of  Edward  Everett.  Not  a  few  of  us  have  had 
the  privilege  of  uniting  with  the  public  authorities,  who 
hastened  to  assume  the  whole  charge  of  his  funeral,  in 
paying  the  last  tribute  to  his  honored  remains.  And 
more  than  one  of  us  have  already  had  an  opportunity  of 
giving  some  feeble  expression  to  our  sense  of  the  loss 
which  has  been  sustained  by  our  city,  our  Common 
wealth,  and  our  whole  country. 

But  we  are  here  this  evening  to  take  up  the  theme 
again  somewhat  more  deliberately,  as  a  Society  of  which 


1  15660 


4  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

he  was  so  long  one  of  the  most  valuable,  as  well  as  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  members.  We  are  here  not 
merely  to  unite  in  lamenting  the  close  of  a  career  which 
has  been  crowded  with  so  many  good  words  and  good 
works  for  the  community  and  the  country  at  large,  but 
to  give  utterance  to  our  own  particular  sorrow  for  the 
breach  which  has  been  made  in  our  own  cherished  circle. 

Mr.  Everett  was  elected  a  member  of  this  Society  on 
the  27th  of  April,  1820,  when  he  was  but  twenty-six 
years  of  age ;  and,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  his  name 
stood  second  in  order  of  seniority  on  the  roll  of  our 
resident  members.  I  need  not  attempt  to  say  to  you  how 
much  we  have  prized  his  companionship,  how  often  we 
have  profited  of  his  counsels,  or  how  deeply  we  have  been 
indebted  to  him  for  substantial  services  which  no  one 
else  could  have  rendered  so  well. 

His  earliest  considerable  effort  in  our  behalf  was  a  lec 
ture  delivered  before  us  on  the  31st  of  October,  1833.  It 
was  entitled  "  Anecdotes  of  Early  Local  History,"  and  will 
be  found  in  the  second  volume  of  his  collected  works,  • — 
now  lying  upon  our  table,  —  with  an  extended  note  or 
appendix  containing  many  interesting  details  concerning 
the  Society,  its  objects  and  its  members.  But  it  is  only 
within  the  last  nine  or  ten  years,  and  since  his  public  life  — 
so  far  as  office  is  necessary  to  constitute  public  life  —  was 
brought  to  a  close,  that  he  has  been  in  the  way  of  taking 
an  active  part  in  our  proceedings.  No  one  can  enter  the 
room  in  which  we  are  gathered  without  remembering  how 
frequently,  during  that  period,  his  voice  has  been  heard 
among  us  in  rendering  such  honors  to  others,  as  now, 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  5 

alas,  we  are  so  unexpectedly  called  to  pay  to  himself.  No 
one  can  forget  his  admirable  tributes  to  the  beloved  Pres- 
cott,  to  the  excellent  Nathan  Hale,  to  the  venerated 
Quincy,  among  our  immediate  associates  ;  —  to  Daniel  D. 
Barnard  of  Albany  and  Henry  D.  Gilpin  of  Philadelphia, 
to  Washington  Irving,  to  Hallam,  to  Humboldt,  to  Ma- 
caulay,  among  our  domestic  and  foreign  honorary  members. 
Still  less  will  any  one  be  likely  to  forget  the  noble 
eulogy  which  he  pronounced,  at  our  request,  on  the  9th 
of  December,  1858,  upon  that  remarkable  self-made  man 
whom  we  have  ever  delighted  to  honor  as  our  largest 
benefactor,  and  in  whose  pictured  presence  we  are  at  this 
moment  assembled.  Often  as  I  have  listened  to  our  la 
mented  friend,  since  the  year  1824,  —  when  I  followed 
him  with  at  least  one  other  whom  I  see  before  me  to 
Plymouth  Rock,  and  heard  his  splendid  discourse  on  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  —  I  can  hardly  recall  anything  of  his, 
more  striking  of  its  kind,  or  more  characteristic  of  its 
author,  than  that  elaborate  delineation  of  the  life  of 
Thomas  Dowse.  No  one,  certainly,  who  was  present  on 
the  occasion,  can  fail  to  recall  the  exhibition  which  he 
gave  us,  in  its  delivery,  of  the  grasp  and  precision  of  his 
wonderful  memory,  —  when  in  describing  the  collection 
of  water  colors,  now  in  the  Athenaeum  gallery,  which  was 
the  earliest  of  Mr.  Dowse's  possessions,  he  repeated, 
without  faltering,  the  unfamiliar  names  of  more  than 
thirty  of  the  old  masters  from  whose  works  they  were 
copied,  and  then  turning  at  once  to  the  description  of 
the  library  itself,  as  we  see  it  now  around  us,  proceeded 
to  recite  the  names  of  fifty-three  of  the  ancient  authors 


6  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

of  Greek  and  Koman  literature,  of  nineteen  of  the  modern 
German,  of  fourteen  of  the  Italian,  of  forty-seven  of  the 
French,  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  of  the  Portuguese  and 
Spanish,  making  up  in  all  an  aggregate  of  more  than  one 
hundred  and  eighty  names  of  artists  and  authors,  many  of 
them  as  hard  to  pronounce  as  they  were  difficult  to  be 
remembered,  but  which  he  rehearsed,  without  the  aid  of 
a  note  and  without  the  hesitation  of  an  instant,  with  as 
much  ease  and  fluency  as  he  doubtless  had  rolled  off 
the  famous  catalogue  of  the  ships,  in  the  second  book  of 
Homer's  Iliad,  with  the  text-book  in  his  hand,  as  a  col 
lege  student  or  as  Greek  professor,  half  a  century  before ! 

I  need  hardly  add  that  with  this  library,  now  our  most 
valued  treasure,  the  name  of  Mr.  Everett  will  henceforth 
be  hardly  less  identified  than  that  of  Mr.  Dowse  himself. 
Indeed,  he  had  been  associated  with  it  long  before  it  was 
so  munificently  transferred  to  us.  By  placing  yonder  por 
trait  of  him,  taken  in  his  earliest  manhood,  upon  the 
walls  of  the  humble  apartment  in  which  the  books  were 
originally  collected,  —  the  only  portrait  ever  admitted  to 
their  companionship,  —  our  worthy  benefactor  seems  him 
self  to  have  designated  Edward  Everett  as  the  presiding 
genius  or  patron  saint  of  this  library ;  and  as  such  he  will 
be  enshrined  by  us,  and  by  all  who  shall  succeed  us,  as 
long  as  the  precious  books  and  the  not  less  precious 
canvas  shall  escape  the  ravages  of  time. 

I  may  not  omit  to  remind  you  that  our  lamented  friend 
—  who  was  rarely  without  some  labor  of  love  for  others 
in  prospect  —  had  at  least  two  matters  in  hand  for  us 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  which  he  was  hoping,  and  which 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  7 

we  all  were  hoping,  that  he  would  soon  be  able  to  com 
plete.  One  of  them  was  a  memoir  of  that  noble  patriot 
of  South  Carolina,  James  Louis  Petigru,  whose  lifelong 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  American  Union,  alike  in  the 
days  of  nullification  and  of  secession,  will  secure  him  the 
grateful  remembrance  of  all  to  whom  that  Union  is  dear. 
The  other  was  a  volume  of  Washington's  private  letters, 
which  he  was  preparing  to  publish  in  our  current  series 
of  historical  collections.  It  is  hardly  a  month  since  he 
told  me  that  the  letters  were  all  copied,  and  that  he  was 
sorry  to  be  obliged  to  postpone  the  printing  of  them  a 
little  longer,  in  order  to  find  time  for  the  annotations 
with  which  he  desired  to  accompany  them. 

But  you  do  not  require  to  be  told,  gentlemen,  that  what 
Mr.  Everett  has  done,  or  has  proposed  to  do,  specifically 
for  our  own  Society,  would  constitute  a  very  small  part  of 
all  that  he  has  accomplished  in  that  cause  of  American 
history  in  which  we  are  associated.  It  is  true  that  he 
has  composed  no  independent  historical  work,  nor  ever 
published  any  volume  of  biography  more  considerable 
than  the  excellent  memoir  of  Washington,  which  he  pre 
pared,  at  the  suggestion  of  his  friend  Lord  Macaulay, 
for  the  new  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica.  But 
there  is  no  great  epoch,  —  there  is  hardly  a  single  great 
event,  —  of  our  national  or  of  our  colonial  history,  which 
he  has  not  carefully  depicted  and  brilliantly  illustrated 
in  his  occasional  discourses.  I  have  sometimes  thought 
that  no  more  attractive  or  more  instructive  history  of  our 
country  could  be  presented  to  the  youth  of  our  land,  than 
is  found  in  the  series  of  anniversary  orations  which  he 


8  MASSACHUSETTS    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

has  delivered  during  the  last  forty  years.  Collect  those 
orations  into  a  volume  by  themselves ;  arrange  them  in 
their  historical  order  :  "  The  First  Settlement  of  New 
England,"  "The  Settlement  of  Massachusetts,"  "The 
Battle  of  Bloody  Brook  in  King  Philip's  War," 
"  The  Seven  Years'  War,  the  School  of  the  Revolution," 
"The  First  Battles  of  the  Revolutionary  War,"  "The 
Battle  of  Lexington,"  "The  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill," 
"Dorchester  in  1630,  1776,  and  1855;"  combine  with 
them  those  "  Anecdotes  of  Early  Local  History,"  which 
he  prepared  for  our  own  Society,  and  add  to  them  his 
charming  discourses  on  "  The  Youth  of  Washington,"  and 
"  The  Character  of  Washington,"  on  "  The  Boyhood  and 
the  Early  Days  of  Franklin,"  and  his  memorable  eulogies 
on  Adams  and  Jefferson,  on  Lafayette,  on  John  Quincy 
Adams  and  on  Daniel  Webster,  and  I  know  not  in  what 
other  volume  the  young  men,  or  even  the  old  men,  of 
our  land  could  find  the  history  of  the  glorious  past  more 
accurately  or  more  admirably  portrayed.  I  know  not 
where  they  could  find  the  toils  and  trials  and  struggles 
of  our  colonial  or  revolutionary  fathers  set  forth  with 
greater  fulness  of  detail  or  greater  felicity  of  illustration. 
As  one  reads  those  orations  and  discourses  at  this  mo 
ment,  they  might  almost  be  regarded  as  successive  chap 
ters  of  a  continuous  and  comprehensive  work  which  had 
been  composed  and  recited  on  our  great  national  anni 
versaries,  just  as  the  chapters  of  Herodotus  are  said  to 
have  been  recited  at  the  Olympic  festivals  of  ancient 
Greece. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  it  is  rather  as  an  actor  and  an 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  9 

orator  in  some  of  the  later  scenes  of  our  country's 
history,  than  as  an  author,  that  Mr.  Everett  will  be 
longest  remembered.  Indeed,  since  he  first  entered  on 
the  stage  of  mature  life,  there  has  hardly  been  a  scene 
of  any  sort  in  that  great  historic  drama,  which  of  late, 
alas,  has  assumed  the  most  terrible  form  of  tragedy,  in 
which  he  has  not  been  called  to  play  a  more  or  less 
conspicuous  part ;  and  we  all  know  how  perfectly  every 
part  which  has  been  assigned  him  has  been  performed. 
If  we  follow  him  from  the  hour  when  he  left  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  with  the  highest  academic 
honors,  at  an  age  when  so  many  others  are  hardly  pre 
pared  to  enter  there,  down  to  the  fatal  day  when  he 
uttered  those  last  impressive  words  at  Faneuil  Hall,  we 
shall  find  him  everywhere  occupied  with  the  highest 
duties,  and  everywhere  discharging  those  duties  with 
consummate  ability  and  unwearied  devotion.  Varied  and 
brilliant  accomplishments,  laborious  research,  copious 
diction,  marvellous  memory,  magnificent  rhetoric,  a  gra 
cious  presence,  a  glorious  voice,  an  ardent  patriotism 
controlling  his  public  career,  an  unsullied  purity  crown 
ing  his  private  life,  —  what  element  was  there  wanting 
in  him  for  the  complete  embodiment  of  the  classic  orator, 
as  Cato  and  Quinctilian  so  tersely  and  yet  so  compre 
hensively  defined  him  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  — 
"  Vir  bonus,  dicendi  peritus !  " 

But  I  may  not  occupy  more  of  your  time  in  these 
introductory  remarks,  intended  only  to  exhibit  our  de 
parted  friend  in  his  relations  to  our  own  Society,  and  to 
open  the  way  for  those  who  are  prepared  to  do  better 


10  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

justice  to  his  general  career  and  character.  Let  me 
only  add  that  our  Standing  Committee  have  requested  our 
associates,  Mr.  Hillard  and  Dr.  Lothrop,  to  prepare  some 
appropriate  resolutions  for  the  occasion,  and  that  the 
Society  is  now  ready  to  receive  them. 

Mr.  Hillard  then  proceeded  as  follows  :  — 

The  Psalmist  says,  "  The  days  of  our  years  are  three 
score  years  and  ten,  and  if  by  reason  of  strength  they  be 
forescore  years,  yet  is  their  strength  labor  and  sorrow." 
The  latter  part  of  this  sentence  is  not  altogether  true ;  at 
least,  it  is  not  without  exceptions  as  numerous  as  the 
rule.  To  say  nothing  of  the  living,  we  who  have  wit 
nessed  the  serene  and  beautiful  old  age  of  Quincy,  pro 
tracted  more  than  twenty  years  after  threescore  years  and 
ten,  will  not  admit  that  all  of  life  beyond  that  limit  is  of 
necessity  "  labor  and  sorrow."  But  in  these  words  there 
is  much  of  truth  as  this,  that  he  who  has  lived  to  be 
threescore  and  ten  years  old  should  feel  that  he  has  had 
his  fair  share  of  life,  and  if  any  more  years  are  dropped 
into  his  lap  he  must  receive  them  as  a  gift  not  promised 
at  his  birth.  And  thus  no  man  who  dies  after  the  age  of 
seventy  can  be  said  to  have  died  unseasonably  or  prema 
turely.  But  the  shock  with  which  the  news  of  Mr. 
Everett's  death  fell  upon  the  community  was  due  to  its 
unexpectedness  as  well  as  its  suddenness.  We  knew 
that  he  was  an  old  man,  but  we  did  not  feel  that  he  was 
such.  There  was  nothing  either  in  his  aspect  or  his  life 
that  warned  us  of  departure  or  reminded  us  of  decay. 
His  powers  were  so  vigorous,  his  industry  was  so  great, 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

his  sympathies  were  so  active,  his  eloquence  was  so  rich 
and  glowing,  his  elocution  still  so  admirable,  that  he  ap 
peared  before  us  as  a  man  in  the  very  prime  of  life,  and 
when  he  died  it  was  as  if  the  sun  had  gone  down  at  noon. 
The  impression  made  by  his  death  was  the  highest  trib 
ute  that  could  be  paid  to  the  worth  of  his  life. 

In  1H19,  after  an  absence  of  nearly  five  years,  Mr. 
Everett  returned  from  Europe  at  the  age  of  twenty-five, 
the  most  finished  and  accomplished  man  that  had  been 
seen  in  New  England,  and  it  will  be  generally  admitted 
that  he  maintained  this  superiority  to  the  last.  From 
that  year  down  to  the  hour  of  his  death  he  was  constantly 
before  the  public  eye,  and  never  without  a  marked  and 
peculiar  influence  upon  the  community,  especially  upon 
students  and  scholars.  You  and  I,  Mr.  President,  are  old 
enough  to  have  come  under  the  spell  of  the  magician  at 
that  early  period  of  his  life,  when  he  presented  the  most 
attractive  combination  of  graceful  and  blooming  youth 
with  mature  intellectual  power.  The  young  man  of  to 
day,  familiar  with  that  expression  of  gravity,  almost  of 
sadness,  which  his  countenance  has  habitually  worn  of 
late,  can  hardly  imagine  what  he  then  was,  when  his 
"  bosom's  lord  sat  light  upon  his  throne,"  when  the  winds 
of  hope  filled  his  sails,  and  his  looks  and  movements  were 
informed  with  a  spirit  of  morning  freshness  and  vernal 
promise. 

In  the  forty-five  years  which  passed  between  his  return 
home  and  his  death,  Mr.  Everett's  industry  was  untiring, 
and  the  amount  of  work  he  accomplished  was  immense. 
What  he  published  would  alone  entitle  him  to  the  praise 


12  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

of  a  very  industrious  man,  but  this  forms  but  a  part  of 
his  labors.  Of  what  has  been  called  the  master-vice  of 
sloth  he  knew  nothing.  He  was  independent  of  the 
amusements  and  relaxations  which  most  hard-working 
men  interpose  between  their  hours  of  toil.  He  was 
always  in  harness. 

Some  persons  have  regretted  that  he  gave  so  much  time 
to  merely  occasional  productions,  instead  of  devoting 
himself  to  some  one  great  work ;  but  without  speculating 
upon  the  comparative  value  of  what  we  have  and  what  we 
might  have  had,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  with  his  genius 
and  temperament  on  the  one  hand,  and  our  institutions 
and  form  of  society  on  the  other,  it  was  a  sort  of  necessity 
that  his  mind  should  have  taken  the  direction  that  it  did. 
For  he  was  the  child  of  his  time,  and  was  always  in  har 
mony  with  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  country  in  which  his 
lot  was  cast.  He  was  pre-eminently  rich  in  the  fruits  of 
European  culture  ;  Greece,  Rome,  England,  France,  Italy, 
and  Germany,  all  helped  by  liberal  contributions  to  swell 
his  stores  of  intellectual  wealth,  but  yet  no  man  was  ever 
more  national  in  feeling,  more  patriotic  in  motive  and 
impulse,  more  thoroughly  American  in  grain  and  fibre. 
Loving  books  as  he  did,  he  would  yet  have  pined  and 
languished  if  he  had  been  doomed  to  live  in  the  unsym 
pathetic  air  of  a  great  library.  The  presence,  the  com 
prehension,  the  sympathy  of  his  kind  were  as  necessary 
to  him  as  his  daily  bread. 

"  Two  words,"  says  Macaulay,  "  form  the  key  of  the 
Baconian  doctrine,  Utility  and  Progress."  I  think  these 
two  words  also  go  far  to  reveal  and  interpret  Mr. 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  13 

Everett's  motives  and  character.  Not  that  he  did  not 
seek  honorable  distinction,  not  that  he  did  not  take 
pleasure  in  the  applause  which  he  had  fairly  earned; 
but  stronger  even  than  these  propelling  impulses  was 
his  desire  to  be  of  service  to  his  fellowmen,  to  do  good 
in  his  day  and  generation.  He  loved  his  country  with  a 
fervid  love,  and  he  loved  his  race  with  a  generous 
and  comprehensive  philanthropy.  He  was  always  ready 
to  work  cheerfully  in  any  direction  when  he  thought 
he  could  do  any  good,  though  the  labor  might  not  be 
particularly  congenial  to  his  tastes,  and  would  not  add 
anything  to  his  literary  reputation.  The  themes  which 
he  handled,  during  his  long  life  of  intellectual  action, 
were  very  various,  they  were  treated  with  great  afflu 
ence  of  learning,  singular  beauty  of  illustration,  and 
elaborate  and  exquisite  harmony  of  style,  but  always  in 
such  a  way  as  to  bear  practical  fruit,  and  contribute 
to  the  advancement  of  society  and  the  elevation  of 
humanity. 

So,  too,  Mr.  Everett  was  a  sincere  and  consistent 
friend  of  progress.  He  was,  it  is  true,  conservative  in 
his  instincts  and  convictions ;  I  mean  in  a  large  and 
liberal,  and  not  in  a  narrow  and  technical  sense.  But 
that  he  was  an  extreme  conservative,  or  that  he  valued 
an  institution  simply  because  it  was  old,  is  not  only 
not  true,  but,  I  think,  the  reverse  of  truth.  He  had  a 
distaste  to  extreme  views  of  any  kind,  and  by  the 
constitution  of  his  mind,  was  disposed  to  take  that 
middle  ground  which  partisan  zeal  is  prone  to  identify 
with  timidity  or  indifference.  But  he  was  a  man  of 


14  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

generous  impulses  and  large  sympathies.  No  one  was 
more  quick  to  recognize  true  progress,  and  greet  it 
with  a  more  hospitable  welcome.  No  man  of  his  age 
would  have  more  readily  and  heartily  acknowledged  the 
many  points  in  which  the  world  has  advanced  since  he 
was  young. 

It  would  not  be  seasonable  here  to  dwell  upon  Mr. 
Everett's  public  or  political  career,  but  I  may  be  per 
mitted  to  add  that  I  think  he  had  a  genuine  faith  in  the 
institutions  of  his  country,  which  did  not  grow  fainter  as 
he  grew. older.  He  believed  in  man's  capacity  for  self- 
government,  and  had  confidence  in  popular  instincts.  He 
was  fastidious  in  his  social  tastes,  but  not  aristocratic ; 
that  is,  if  he  preferred  one  man  to  another  it  was  for 
essential  and  not  adventitious  qualities,  for  what  they 
were,  and  not  for  what  they  had.  He  was  uniformly 
kind  to  the  young,  and  always  prompt  to  recognize  and 
encourage  merit  in  a  young  person. 

Mr.  Everett,  if  not  the  founder  of  the  school  of 
American  deliberative  eloquence,  was  its  most  brilliant 
representative.  In  his  orations  and  occasional  discourses 
will  be  found  his  best  title  to  remembrance,  and  by 
them  his  name  will  surely  be  transmitted  to  future 
generations.  In  judging  of  them,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  the  aim  of  the  deliberative  orator  is  to  treat  a 
subject  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  and  fix  the  atten 
tion  of  a  popular  audience,  and  this  aim  Mr.  Everett 
never  lost  sight  of.  If  it  be  said  that  his  discourses 
are  not  marked  by  originality  of  construction,  or  philo 
sophical  depth  of  thought,  it  may  be  replied  that  had 


MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT.  15 

they  been  so,  they  would  have  been  less  attractive  to  his 
hearers.  They  are  remarkable  for  a  combination  of 
qualities  rarely,  if  ever  before,  so  happily  blended,  and 
especially  for  the  grace,  skill,  and  tact  with  which  the 
resources  of  the  widest  cultivation  are  so  used  as  to 
instruct  the  common  mind  and  touch  the  common 
heart.  For,  whatever  were  the  subject,  Mr.  Everett 
always  took  his  audience  along  with  him,  from  first 
to  last.  He  never  soared  or  wandered  out  of  their 
sight. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  singular  beauty  and  finish 
of  his  elocution.  Those  who  have  heard  him  speak 
will  need  no  description  of  the  peculiar  charm  and 
grace  of  his  manner,  and  no  description  will  give  any 
adequate  impression  of  it  to  those  who  never  heard  him. 
It  was  a  manner  easily  caricatured  but  not  easily  imitated. 
His  power  over  an  audience  remained  unimpaired  to  the 
last.  At  the  age  of  seventy  he  spoke  with  all  the  anima 
tion  of  youth,  and  easily  filled  the  largest  hall  with  that 
rich  and  flexible  voice,  the  tones  of  which  time  had 
hardly  touched. 

His  organization  was  delicate  and  refined,  his  tem 
perament  was  sensitive  and  sympathetic.  The  opinion 
of  those  whom  he  loved  and  esteemed  was  weighty  with 
him.  Praise  was  ever  cordial  to  him,  and  more  neces 
sary  than  to  most  men  who  had  achieved  such  high  and 
assured  distinction.  Doubtful  as  the  statement  may  seem 
to  those  who  knew  him  but  slightly,  or  only  saw  him  on 
the  platform  with  his  "  robes  and  singing  garlands"  about 
him,  he  was  to  the  last  a  modest  and  self- distrustful 


16  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

man.  He  never  appeared  in  public  without  a  slight 
nutter  of  apprehension  lest  he  should  fall  short  of  that 
'standard  which  he  had  created  for  himself.  His  want 
of  self-confidence,  and,  in  later  years,  his  want  of  animal 
spirits,  sometimes  produced  a  coldness  of  manner,  which, 
by  superficial  observers,  was  set  down  to  coldness  of 
heart,  but  most  unjustly. 

His  nature  was  courteous,  gentle,  and  sweet.  Few  men 
were  ever  more  worthy  than  he  to  wear  "the  grand 
old  name  of  gentleman."  His  manners  were  graceful, 
more  scholarly  than  is  usual  with  men  who  had  been 
so  much  in  public  life  as  he  had  been,  and  sometimes 
covered  with  a  delicate  veil  of  reserve.  Conflict  and 
contest  were  distasteful  to  him,  and  it  was  his  disposition 
to  follow  the  things  that  make  for  peace.  He  had  a  true 
respect  for  the  intellectual  rights  of  others,  and  it  was  no 
fault  of  his  if  he  ever  lost  a  friend  through  difference  of 
opinion. 

Permit  me  to  turn  for  a  moment  to  Mr.  Everett's  public 
life  for  an  illustration  of  his  character.  In  forensic  con 
tests,  sarcasm  and  invective  are  formidable  and  frequent 
weapons.  The  House  of  Commons  quailed  before  the 
younger  Pitt's  terrible  ptiwers  of  sarcasm.  An  eminent 
living  statesman  and  orator  of  Great  Britain  is  remarkable 
for  both  these  qualities.  But  neither  invective  nor 
sarcasm  is  to  be  found  in  Mr.  Everett's  speeches.  I 
think  this  absence  is  to  be  ascribed  not  to  an  intellectual 
want  but  to  a  moral  grace. 

Great  men,  public  men,  have  also  their  inner  and 
private  life,  and  sometimes  this  must  be  thrown  by  the 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  17 

honest  painter  into  shadow.  But  in  Mr.  Everett's  case 
there  was  no  need  of  this,  for  his  private  life  was  spotless. 
In  conduct  and  conversation  he  always  conformed  to 
the  highest  standard  which  public  opinion  exacts  of 
the  members  of  that  profession  to  which  he  originally 
belonged.  As  a  brother,  husband,  father,  and  friend, 
there  was  no  duty  that  he  did  not  discharge,  no  call  that 
he  did  not  obey.  He  was  generous  in  giving,  and  equally 
generous  in  sacrificing.  Where  he  was  most  known 
he  was  best  loved.  He  was  wholly  free  from  that 
exacting  temper  in  small  things  which  men,  eminent 
and  otherwise  estimable,  sometimes  fall  into.  His  daily 
life  was  made  beautiful  by  a  pervading  spirit  of  thought 
ful  consideration  for  those  who  stood  nearest  to  him. 
His  household  manners  were  delightful,  and  his  house 
hold  discourse  was  brightened  by  a  lambent  play  of  wit 
and  humor ;  qualities  which  he  possessed  in  no  common 
measure,  though  they  were  rarely  displayed  before  the 
public.  Could  the  innermost  circle  of  Mr.  Everett's  life 
be  revealed  to  the  general  eye,  it  could  not  fail  to  deepen 
the  sense  of  bereavement  which  his  death  has  awakened, 
and  to  increase  the  reverence  with  which  his  memory  is 
and  will  be  cherished. 

No  man  ever  bore  his  faculties  and  his  eminence 
more  meekly  than  he.  He  never  declined  the  lowly 
and  commonplace  duties  of  life.  He  was  always  ap 
proachable  and  accessible.  The  constant  and  various 
interruptions  to  which  he  was  exposed  by  the  innu 
merable  calls  made  upon  his  time  and  thoughts  were 
borne  by  him  with  singular  patience  and  sweetness. 


18  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

His  industry  was  as  methodical  as  it  was  uniform.  How 
ever  busy  he  might  be,  he  could  always  find  time  for 
any  service  which  a  friend  required  at  his  hands.  He 
was  scrupulously  faithful  and  exact  in  small  things.  He 
never  broke  an  appointment  or  a  promise.  His  splendid 
powers  worked  with  all  the  regularity  and  precision  of 
the  most  nicely  adjusted  machinery.  If  he  had  under 
taken  to  have  a  discourse,  a  report,  an  article,  ready  at  a 
certain  time,  it  might  be  depended  upon  as  surely  as  the 
rising  of  the  sun. 

I  feel  that  I  have  hardly  touched  upon  the  remark 
able  qualities  of  Mr.  Everett's  mind  and  character,  and 
yet  I  have  occupied  as  much  of  your  time  as  is  becoming. 
I  have  only  to  offer  a  few  resolutions,  in  which  I  have 
endeavored  briefly  and  simply  to  give  expression  to  what 
we  all  feel. 

Mr.  Hillurd  then  presented  the  following  resolutions  :  — 

Resolved,  That  as  members  of  the  Massachusetts  His 
torical  Society,  we  record,  with  mingled  pride  and  sorrow, 
our  sense  of  what  we  have  lost  in  the  death  of  our  late 
illustrious  associate,  Edward  Everett,  the  wise  statesman, 
the  eloquent  orator,  the  devoted  patriot,  the  finished 
scholar,  whose  long  life  of  singular  and  unbroken  intel 
lectual  activity  has  shed  new  lustre  upon  the  name  of  our 
country  in  every  part  of  the  civilized  world,  and  whose 
noble  powers  and  unrivalled  accomplishments  were  always 
inspired  by  an  enlarged  and  enlightened  philanthropy, 
and  dedicated  to  the  best  interests  of  knowledge,  virtue, 
and  truth. 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  19 

Resolved,  That  we  recall  with  peculiar  sensibility  the 
personal  qualities  and  private  virtues  of  our  departed 
friend,  the  purity  and  beauty  of  his  daily  life,  his  strict 
allegiance  to  duty,  the  strength  and  tenderness  of  his 
domestic  affections,  the  uniform  conscientiousness  which 
regulated  his  conduct,  his  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  his 
thoughtful  consideration  for  the  rights  and  happiness  of 
others,  and  the  gentleness  with  which  his  great  faculties 
and  high  honors  were  borne. 

Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  Society  be  re 
quested  to  transmit  these  resolutions  to  the  family  of 
our  lamented  associate,  with  an  expression  of  our  deep 
sympathy  with  them  in  their  loss,  and  of  our  trust  that 
they  may  find  consolation  not  merely  in  the  remembrance 
of  his  long,  useful,  and  illustrious  career,  but  in  the 
hopes  and  promises  of  that  religion  of  which  he  was  a 
firm  believer,  and  which  was  ever  to  him  a  staff  of 
support  through  life. 

The  resolutions  were  seconded  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lothrop,  who 
then  addressed  the  meeting,  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  rise,  at  your  request  and  at  that  of 
the  standing  committee,  to  second  the  resolutions  which 
have  just  been  offered,  and  to  pay  my  portion  of  the  tribute 
of  profound,  grateful,  and  affectionate  respect,  which  the 
Society  would  offer  this  evening  to  the  memory  of  our  emi 
nent  deceased  associate.  And  as  we  gather  within  these 
walls  and  in  this  room,  where  we  have  so  often  welcomed 
his  presence,  I  feel  brought  back  upon  me  afresh  that 
sense  of  loneliness  and  of  personal  bereavement,  which,  in 


20  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

common  with  so  many,  I  had  when  I  first  heard  that  one 
who  for  more  than  forty  years  had  been  the  object  of  my 
youthful  and  my  mature  admiration,  one  whose  speech 
never  disappointed  me,  but  had  often  stirred  my  heart 
with  pure  and  noble  emotions,  and  to  whom  I  and  others 
had  so  long  been  accustomed  to  turn  upon  all  occasions  of 
public  interest  and  importance,  as  the  person  who  could 
do  and  say,  in  the  best  way,  the  best  things  to  be  done  and 
said,  was  really  dead,  and  that  the  utterances  of  his  wis 
dom  and  eloquence  would  never  more  be  heard  by  us  on 
earth.  My  sorrow,  however,  at  his  departure,  the  sorrow 
of  all  of  us,  I  think,  must  be  greatly  softened  by  the 
extraordinary  felicity  of  the  time  and  manner  of  his  death, 
and  by  the  recollection  of  the  grand  and  noble  career  of 
which  that  death  was  the  close. 

In  view  of  my  profession  and  the  pulpit  which  it  has 
been  my  honor  and  happiness  to  occupy  in  this  city,  it 
may  be  permitted  me,  in  glancing  at  his  career,  to  speak 
with  some  particularity  of  that  which  was  the  beginning 
of  it  before  the  public  —  his  brief  but  honorable  connec 
tion  with  the  clerical  profession,  and  his  short  but  brilliant 
pastorate  at  Brattle  Street  Church.  Mr.  Everett  has  said, 
I  believe,  that  on  leaving  college  his  strongest  preferences 
were  for  the  law ;  but  the  influence  and  advice  of  friends, 
combining  with  the  promptings  of  his  own  heart,  the  deep 
religious  instincts  of  his  nature,  determined  his  choice  of 
the  Christian  ministry.  That  determination  must  now  be 
regarded  as  fortunate  for  him  and  for  us.  He  left  the 
pulpit,  indeed,  shortly  after  he  had  entered  it;  but  no 
true  man  ever  forgets  that  he  has  stood  in  it,  and  the 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  21 

studies,  the  spiritual  discipline  and  culture  of  his  early 
profession  seem  to  me  to  have  exerted  upon  Mr.  Everett's 
mind  and  heart  blessed  and  important  influences,  which 
affected  his  whole  subsequent  career,  and  impregnated  his 
life  and  character  with  the  simple  but  grand  dignity  of 
purity.  Graduating  in  1811,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  he 
spent  two  years  and  a  few  months  at  Cambridge,  pursuing 
theological  studies,  and  discharging  at  the  same  time  the 
onerous  duties  of  a  tutorship.  On  the  10th  of  December, 
1813,  a  mere  youth,  who  had  not  yet  numbered  twenty 
winters,  he  first  stood  in  Brattle  Street  pulpit  to  preach 
as  a  candidate.  Fame  had  preceded  him,  and  told  of  his 
talents  rich  and  rare,  of  his  great  learning  and  his  great 
capacity  to  learn,  —  marvellous  even  then  in  the  judgment 
of  his  peers  and  of  the  University,  —  of  his  extraordinary 
gift  of  golden  speech,  his  powers  of  winning,  persuasive 
oratory. 

The  great,  though  vague  and  undefined  expectations 
thus  awakened,  were  not  disappointed.  I  have  been  told 
by  many  who  distinctly  remember  the  occasion,  that  when 
he  rose  in  the  pulpit  that  morning,  a  youthful  modesty, 
almost  timidity,  blending  with  the  dignity  which  a  grave 
and  reverent  sense  of  the  importance  of  his  office  inspired, 
lent  a  fascinating  charm  to  his  manner,  and  that  from  the 
moment  he  opened  his  lips,  the  audience  were  held  spell 
bound  to  the  end  of  the  service.  When  the  days  of  his 
engagement  were  numbered,  the  universal  cry  was, 
"  Come  unto  us  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  ;  break  unto  us 
the  bread  of  life,  and  let  all  these  rich  gifts  find  their 
usefulness  and  their  glory  in  the  service  of  the  Master 

3 


22  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

here  among  us."  He  heard  the  cry  as  the  leadings  of 
Providence,  and  came.  His  ordination,  on  the  9th  of 
February,  1814,  was  an  occasion  of  as  deep  interest  as 
any  event  of  the  kind  ever  excited.  The  most  eminent 
and  excellent  men- of  that  day  took  part  in  it.  It  brought 
a  perfect  satisfaction  to  the  people.  It  awakened  the 
most  brilliant  anticipations.  It  was  accompanied  not 
simply  with  the  hope,  but  with  the  conviction,  that  the 
former  glory  of  that  pulpit,  which  the  death  of  Buckmins- 
ter  had  veiled  for  a  season,  would  be  revived  with  in 
creased  and  increasing  splendor.  That  conviction  was 
verified.  As  the  months  rolled  on,  Brattle  Street  Church, 
then  near  the  residences  rather  than  the  business  of  the 
people,  was' crowded  Sunday  after  Sunday  with  audiences 
of  the  intelligent  and  the  cultivated,  who  went  away 
charmed,  instructed,  religiously  impressed;  and  the 
records  of  the  communion  show  that  it  was  a  season  of 
spiritual  growth  as  well  as  of  outward  prosperity.  But 
the  year  had  not  reached  its  close  before  painful  rumors 
began  to  prevail  that  this  was  not  to  last,  and  at  the  end 
of  thirteen  months  after  his  ordination,  he  resigned  his 
charge,  to  accept  the  Eliot  Professorship  of  Greek  Litera 
ture  in  the  University  at  Cambridge,  to  which  he  had 
been  appointed  by  the  corporation,  with  Jeave  of  study 
and  travel  for  five  years  in  Europe,  in  further  preparation 
for  its  duties. 

He  left  the  clerical  profession,  and  virtually  the  pulpit, 
when  he  thus  left  Brattle  Street  Church.  On  his  return 
from  Europe,  indeed,  and  for  two  or  three  years  subse 
quently,  he  preached  occasionally,  some  ten  or  fifteen, 


MEMORIAL   OF    EDWARD   EVERETT.  23 

perhaps  twenty  times  in  all.  I  may  be  permitted  a  brief 
allusion  to  some  of  these  occasions,  which  I  remember. 
First,  of  course,  he  preached  in  what  had  been  his  own 
pulpit,  Brattle  Street,  in  the  summer  of  1819,  a  few  weeks 
after  his  return.  I  was  one  of  the  mighty  company  that 
thronged  the  aisles  of  that  church  on  that  day,  and,  stand 
ing  on  the  window-seat  nearest  the  door  in  the  north 
gallery,  heard  him  for  the  first  time  when  I  was  just  old 
enough  to  receive  my  first  idea  of  eloquence,  to  understand 
and  feel  something  of  its  power.  A  month  or  two  later, 
in  December  of  that  year,  I  think,  he  preached  a  famous 
Christmas  sermon  at  King's  Chapel,  and  on  the  first  Sun 
day  in  December,  1820,  the  Quarterly  Charity  Lecture,  at 
the  Old  South  Church,  which  was  crowded  to  overflowing 
to  hear  him.  Another  memorable  and  impressive  sermon 
of  his,  preached  several  times  in  different  pulpits  in  this 
vicinity,  and  which  several  gentlemen  present  must  dis 
tinctly  remember,  was  on  the  text,  "  The  time  is  short." 
He  preached  the  sermon  at  the  funeral  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Bentley,  of  Salem,  on  the  3d  of  January,  1820,  President 
Kirkland  and  Dr.  Ware  of  the  University  officiating  in 
the  other  parts  of  the  service.  This  arrangement  was 
probably  made  in  the  expectation  that  Dr.  Bentley  had  left 
his  valuable  library  to  Harvard  College.  But  the  doc 
torate  from  Cambridge  was  conferred  too  late,  and  it  was 
found  that  the  library  had  been  bequeathed  to  Alleghany 
College ;  so,  to  the  deep  regret  of  those  who  heard  it, 
Mr.  Everett's  sermon  on  this  occasion  was  never  pub 
lished.  On  the  19th  of  January,  1821,  he  preached  the 
sermon  at  the  dedication  of  the  First  Congregational 


24  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

Church  in  the  city  of  New  York,  of  which  the  late  Rev. 
William  Ware  subsequently  became  pastor.  This  sermon 
was  published,  and  is,  I  believe,  the  only  sermon  he  ever 
published.  It  is  the  only  one  I  have  ever  seen.  In  style 
it  is  simple  and  grave,  less  rhetorical  than  his  orations. 
It  is  liberal,  but  conservative,  in  its  theology,  broad  and 
catholic  in  its  charity,  fervent  in  tone  and  spirit,  evidently 
the  product  of  a  devout  heart.  This  dedication  at  New 
York  was  the  last  or  among  the  last  occasions  011  which 
he  preached.  I  feel  quite  confident  that  he  did  not  preach 
after  1821,  because  the  next  year,  as  some  who  hear  me 
will  remember,  in  addition  to  the  lectures  connected  with 
his  professorship,  and  other  duties  at  Cambridge,  he  was 
occupied  with  a  course  of  lectures,  whose  preparation, 
judging  from  their  learning  and  brilliancy,  must  have  cost 
him  no  little  time  and  study,  on  Art  and  Architecture,  — 
more  especially,  if  my  memory  serves  me,  on  Greek  and 
Egyptian  Architecture,  —  which  he  delivered  at  what  was 
then  called  the  Pantheon  Hall,  on  Washington  Street,  a 
little  south  of  the  Boylston  Market.  Lectures  of  this 
kind  were  then  unusual  in  Boston,  and  these,  having  in 
addition  to  their  novelty  the  strong  attraction  of  the  name 
and  fame  of  the  lecturer,  were  attended  by  an  audience 
as  cultivated  and  appreciative  as  ever  assembled  for  a 
similar  purpose. 

From  this  review  it  appears  that  his  whole  connection 
with  the  pulpit,  including  his  preparatory  studies  and 
pastorate]  before  he  went  to  Europe,  and  the  period 
during  which  he  preached  occasionally  after  his  return, 
was  only  about  five  years.  His  exclusive  connection 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  25 

with  it  as  pastor  was  only  one  year  and  a  month  lacking 
four  days,  from  the  9th  of  February,  1814,  to  the  5th 
of  March,  1815.  In  this  brief  period  he  made  an 
impression,  as  a  preacher,  which  abides  distinct  and 
clear  to  this  hour  in  many  hearts.  He  left  the  pulpit 
with  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  eminent  and 
eloquent  man  in  it ;  and  he  left  in  and  with  the  pro 
fession  one  book  —  his  "Defence  of  Christianity"  — 
which  at  the  time  it  was  published  was  justly  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  learned  and  important  theological 
works  that  had  then  been  written  in  America,  and  which, 
considering  its  contents,  the  circumstances  under  which 
it  was  prepared,  and  the  extreme  youth  of  the  author, 
may  still  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
books  produced  at  any  time  in  any  profession.  It  is 
one  of  those  books,  of  which  the  paradox  may  be  uttered, 
that  its  success  caused  its  failure.  It  so  perfectly 
accomplished  its  work  that  it  almost  dropt  out  of  exist 
ence.  Few  of  the  present  generation  ever  heard  of  it, 
fewer  still  know  anything  about  it.  Copies  of  it  can 
now  be  found  only  here  and  there,  on  the  shelves  of 
Public  Libraries,  or  among  the  books  of  aged  clergymen. 
It  was  prepared,  as  some  gentlemen  here  will  remember, 
in  reply  to  a  work  by  Mr.  George  Bethune  English, 
who  graduated  at  Cambridge  in  1807,  the  year  Mr. 
Everett  entered.  This  gentleman,  not  without  talents, 
but  erratic  in  his  career,  which  his  death  terminated  in 
1828,  remained  at  Cambridge  four  or  five  years  after 
graduating,  studied  theology,  and  I  believe,  preached 
for  a  brief  period.  Being  led,  apparently  by  the  study 


26  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

of  the  deistical  works  of  Anthony  Collins,  to  adopt 
opinions  unfavorable  to  Christianity  as  a  divine  revela 
tion,  he  published  a  -book  entitled,  "  The  Grounds  of 
Christianity  Examined  by  Comparing  the  New  Testament 
with  the  Old."  This  work,  plausible  in  spirit,  having 
the  appearance  of  great  candor  in  statement  and  fairness 
in  argument,  attracted  attention  and  was  much  read. 
It  unsettled  the  faith  of  many,  and,  if  left  unanswered, 
seemed  destined  to  do  this  for  many  more. 

Mr.  Everett  did,  what  several  older  men,  I  have 
heard,  attempted  without  success ;  he  made  a  triumphant 
answer  to  Mr.  English's  book,  in  a  volume  of  nearly 
five  hundred  pages,  which  to  this  day  must  be  regarded 
as  replete  with  the  learning  bearing  upon  its  partic 
ular  point.  Cogent  in  argument,  clear  and  close  in  its 
reasoning,  eloquent  often  in  the  fervor  and  glow  of  a 
devout  faith,  keen  yet  kind  in  its  wit  and  satire,  conclu 
sive  in  its  exposition  of  the  ignorance  of  his  opponent, 
his  plagiarism,  and  his  dishonesty  in  the  use  of  his 
materials,  this  book  so  completely  extinguished  Mr. 
English  and  his  disciples,  that  it  soon  ceased  to  be 
read  itself.  It  died  out,  as  I  have  said,  and  is  now 
known  only  to  few  of  the  older  members  of  the  commu 
nity  and  the  profession.  It  is  a  book  of  such  a  charac 
ter,  that  any  man  at  any  period  of  his  life  might  be 
pardoned  the  manifestation  of  some  little  self-complacency 
at  finding  himself  the  author  of  it.  Many  have  passed 
a  long  life  in  the  profession,  and  held  a  high  and  honor 
able  position  in  it,  without  giving  any  evidence  of  the 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  27 

mastery  of  so  much  of  the  learning  that  belongs  to  it  as 
is  contained  in  this  work. 

His  "  Defence  of  Christianity,"  written  partly  before 
his  ordination  and  published  six  months  afterwards,  in 
August,  1814.  was  Mr.  Everett's  legacy  to  the  clerical 
profession,  bequeathed  to  it  before  he  was  invested 
with  a  legal  manhood.  I  am  aware  that  their  opinions  on 
the  Prophets  and  the  Old  Testament  generally,  do  not 
permit  some  eminent  theological  scholars  to  put  a 
very  high  estimate  upon  Mr.  Everett's  "  Defence  of 
Christianity,"  but,  for  myself,  without  disparagement  of 
the  good  he  has  done,  and  the  honors  he  has  attained 
in  other  departments,  I  cannot  but  think,  that  if  there 
be  any  one  event,  work,  or  labor  of  his  varied  and 
useful  life,  of  which  he  may,  on  a  just  estimate  of  things, 
be  most  proud,  it  is  that  in  the  days  of  his  early  youth, 
on  the  very  threshold  of  his  career,  he  prepared  and 
published  this  book,  which  silenced  the  voice  of  infi 
delity  and  gave  peace,  satisfaction,  and  a  firm  faith  to 
thousands  of  minds  in  a  young  and  growing  community. 

We  are  not  surprised  that  a  career,  which  began  in 
such  industry,  in  the  exhibition  of  so  much  learning  and 
such  fidelity  in  improving  opportunity,  should  have  gone 
on  to  the  close  increasing  in  honor  and  usefulness.  I 
do  not  propose  to  follow  this  career  with  such  minute 
ness  all  through,  nor  would  it  be  proper  in  me  to  do  so 
here  ;  but  as  I  have  spoken  of  the  clergyman,  I  may  be 
permitted  to  say  something  of  the  Professor  at  Cambridge, 
as  I  am  the  only  member  of  the  Society  present,  who,  as  a 
pupil  in  the  Academic  Department  of  the  University 


28  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

had  the  benefit  of  his  instructions  and  lectures.  Cam 
bridge  and  the  family  of  President  Kirkland  having  been 
my  home  for  several  years  before  I  entered  college  in 
1821,  not  long  after  he  entered  upon  his  professorship, 
I  knew  something  about  the  college,  and  had  ample 
opportunity  of  knowing  also  the  fresh  impulse  which  he 
gave  to  the  study  of  Greek,  by  the  general  influence  of  his 
reputation  as  a  Greek  scholar,  by  his  occasional  presence 
at  our  recitations  to  the  tutors  in  Greek,  by  his  suggestive 
direction  or  advice  to  such  students  as  wished  to  give 
special  attention  to  this  department,  but  chiefly  by  his 
lectures  on  the  Greek  language  and  literature,  which 
were  delivered  to  the  senior  class,  in  what  was  then,  there 
being  three,  the  second  or  Spring  Term  of  the  college 
year.  The  class  graduating  in  1825,  of  which  I  was  a 
member,  was  the  last  of  the  six  classes  who  had  the 
benefit  of  these  lectures.  From  my  recollection  of  them, 
from  notes  taken  at  the  time,  and  from  the  printed  synop 
sis  which  was  furnished  for  our  guidance,  I  have  a  strong 
impression  of  the  extraordinary  character  of  those  lec 
tures,  as  profound,  comprehensive,  discriminating,  and 
largely  exhaustive  of  all  the  learning  connected  with 
their  theme.  Had  he  published  them  when  he  resigned, 
he  would  have  left  in  his  Professor's  chair  a  legacy  as 
remarkable,  in  its  kind,  as  his  legacy  to  the  pulpit  in 
his  "  Defence  of  Christianity,"  and  secured  to  himself 
such  a  reputation  as  a  Greek  scholar,  master  of  all  the 
learning  appertaining  to  the  history  and  criticism  of 
Greek  literature,  as  many  a  man  would  have  been  willing 
to  rest  upon  for  the  remainder  of  his  life. 


MEMORIAL    OF    EDWARD   EVERETT.  29 

But   while    professor    at   Cambridge,   Mr.   Everett  was 
interested    not    simply   in    his    immediate    duties,   but  in 
whatever  touched   the   welfare   and  improvement  of  the 
college.     In   all    departments   his  influence   was  felt,  and 
in  one  direction   he  was  active  in  a  way  which  had  some 
connection,  I   suppose,  with  his   resignation  of  his  profes 
sorship    to    enter    upon    political    life.       In    1823,    some 
of  the   eminent  gentlemen   at   Cambridge,    then   resident 
professors,  took  up  the  thought,  not  without  some   quite 
substantial    reasons,    that    the    "  Fellows,"    as    they    are 
termed  in  the  Charter,   "Members   of  the   Corporation," 
as   we   commonly  designate  them,  should  be  chosen  from 
among  themselves  ;  that  the  authoritative  body  controlling 
the  college,  having   primarily  the  charge  of  all  its  inter 
ests,  and  the  conduct  of  all  its  affairs,  should  be  composed 
of  the  working  men  on  the  spot,  who  best  understood  its 
condition   and    its  wants,   and    were    most    competent    to 
carry  it  on  successfully,  rather  than  of  gentlemen  engaged 
in  other  occupations,  and  living  in  Boston,  Salem,  or  some 
more  distant  place.     In  1824,  they  prepared  a  memorial 
to  this  effect,  addressed  to   the  Corporation,  who   referred 
them    to    the    Board    of  Overseers,    before    which   body, 
a    hearing,    asked    for    and    granted,    was    subsequently 
held.     The    late    Andrews    Norton,  Dexter   Professor    of 
Sacred    Literature,    and    Mr.    Everett,    were    selected    to 
represent  Ihe  memorialists  at  this  hearing.     Mr.  Norton 
read   a  very  able   paper,  marked  by  the  concise  accuracy 
of  statement    and   closeness    of   reasoning  for   which    he 
was    distinguished.       Mr.     Everett,    without    manuscript, 
with    only   a  few    brief    memoranda,    such   as    a  lawyer 


30  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

would  use  before  a  jury,  addressed  the  Board  in  a 
speech  occupying  more  than  two  hours.  He  was  inter 
rupted  at  times  by  gentlemen  of  the  Board  adverse  to  the 
position  of  the  memorialists,  the  accuracy,  or  pertinence, 
or  propriety  of  his  statements  questioned,  and  in  one 
instance,  if  not  more,  the  decision  of  the  Chair,  (Lieut. 
Gov.  Morton  presiding,)  that  he  was  "  not  in  order," 
required  him  to  change  his  line  of  argument  and 
remark.  Nothing,  however,  seemed  to  confuse  or  discom 
pose  him.  The  situation  was  novel  and  trying,  yet  he 
sustained  himself  with  an  admirable  degree  of  self-posses 
sion,  and  conducted  his  cause  with  great  ability.  I  have 
always  supposed  that  it  was  the  exhibition  of  his  powers 
on  this  occasion,  the  coolness  and  tact  with  which  he 
conducted  himself  in  an  "argument,  and  sometimes  almost 
a  debate,  before  a  body  of  eminent  men,  some  of  whom 
were  opposed  to  his  position,  that  first  suggested  his 
nomination  to  represent  Middlesex  in  Congress,  and  that 
his  splendid  and  eloquent  oration  before  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  Society,  in  August,  1824,  only  helped  to  confirm 
the  purpose  of  his  nomination,  and  secure  his  election. 
Thus  much  at  least  is  clear,  any  distrust  that  may  have 
been  felt  in  any  quarter  as  to  his  fitness  or  competency 
for  .congressional  service,  in  view  of  his  scholastic  train 
ing  and  habits,  found  a  conclusive  answer  in  the  manner 
in  which  he  bore  himself  in  this  hearing  before  the  Board 
of  Overseers. 

But  whatever  suggested  the  nomination,  it  was  made, 
and  he  was  elected  in  the  autumn  of  1824,  and,  delivering 
his  lectures  for  the  last  time  in  the  spring  of  1825,  he 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD    EVERETT.  31 

resigned  and  took  his  seat  in  Congress  in  December  of 
that  year.  The  deep  regret  felt  and  expressed  by  many 
at  that  time,  that  so  much  learning,  such  various  abilities, 
persuasive  eloquence,  and  rare  combination  of  qualities, 
were  lost  to  the  direct  service  of  literature  and  religion, 
must  be  largely  diminished,  if  not  entirely  extinguished  by 
his  eminent  and  brilliant  success,  by  his  wide  spread  use 
fulness  in  varied  departments  of  public  and  political  life, 
by  the  singular  nobleness  and  purity  of  his  whole  career, 
and  by  his  constant  fidelity  and  devotedness  to  the  interests 
of  truth,  virtue,  and  religion.  For  he  seems  to  me  to  have 
been  thus  faithful  and  devoted.  I  feel  disposed  to  main 
tain  that  Mr.  Everett  was  true  always  to  the  spirit  of  his 
early  vows,  and  though  he  did  not  continue  in  the  admin 
istration  of  religion  as  an  institution  of  society,  he 
continued  to  cultivate  its  spirit  and  power  in  his  heart, 
and  to  make  it  the  controlling  inspiration  and  energy  of 
his  life.  It  is  not  necessary,  nor  would  it  be  proper  for 
me  here,  to  go  into  an  analysis  of  his  speeches,  votes, 
or  conduct  at  various  junctures  in  our  public  affairs  during 
the  last  forty  years,  but  it  seems  to  me,  that  whatever 
difference  of  judgment  party  predilections  may  dispose  us 
to  entertain  about  portions  of  his  public  career,  a  broad, 
generous,  just,  and  fair  review  of  the  whole  of  it,  will  lead 
every  one  to  concur  in  the  position,  that  it  was  all  under 
laid  and  impregnated  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  with 
a  simple,  honest,  conscientious,  patriotic  purpose.  The 
very  admirable  and  beautiful  analysis  of  his  character, 
which  Mr.  Hillard  has  just  read  before  us,  seemed  to  me 
to  confirm  this  position,  and  to  give  the  true  explanation 


32  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL    SOCIETY. 

of  his  course.  From  his  entrance  upon  public  life  in 
1825,  to  the  spring  of  1861,  all  through  those  more  than 
thirty  years,  in  which  the  struggle  between  the  antago 
nistic  elements  of  liberty  and  slavery  in  our  government 
and  institutions  came  up  in  various  forms,  he,  in  common 
with  many  of  our  greatest  statesmen  and  large  masses  of 
our  people,  felt  that  a  certain  line  of  policy  was  the 
wisest  and  the  best,  most  adapted  to  keep  the  peace,  to 
preserve  the  Union  from  dissolution,  and  the  Government 
and  the  country  from  ruin.  Therefore,  adhering  to  this 
policy,  adopted  on  conviction,  he  was  for  patience,  for 
bearance,  compromise,  concession,  for  yielding  anything 
and  everything  that  could,  not  simply  in  justice,  but  in 
generosity  and  honor,  be  yielded  to  satisfy  those  who 
were  perpetually  holding  over  us  the  menace  of  dissolu 
tion.  Honestly,  and  in  the  spirit  of  a  broad  patriotism,  to 
disarm  this  menace  of  all  occasion  and  all  justification, 
was  the  purpose  of  his  action  and  policy  while  in  public 
office,  and  of  his  efforts  as  a  private  citizen,  and  especially 
of  that  grand  national  pilgrimage  which  he  made  with  the 
life  and  character  of  Washington  as  the  theme  of  a  magni 
ficent  discourse,  which  he  delivered  so  many  times  to  such 
vast  assemblies  in  all  the  principal  cities  of  the  land,  in  the 
hope  that  under  the  shadow  of  that  august  name,  and  by 
the  glory  of  a  memory  so  sacred  to  all  of  us,  he  might 
allay  sectional  prejudice  and  the  strife  of  parties,  and 
bind  all  together  in  a  common  love  and  devotion  to  the 
Union.  But  when  this  hope  failed,  and  he  found  that 
treason  had  developed  its  plans,  that  rebellion,  unfurling  its 
standard,  had  inaugurated  civil  war,  then  the  policy  that 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  33 

had  hitherto  guided  his  life  was  instantly  abandoned. 
He  felt  that  there  was  no  longer  any  room  for  concession 
or  compromise,  and  so  gave  himself,  time,  talents,  wis 
dom,  strength,  all  that  he  had,  in  all  the  ways  that  he 
could,  to  support  the  legitimate  Government  of  the 
United  States,  in  all  the  action  and  policy  by  which  that 
Government  sought  to  maintain  at  all  hazards  and  at 
any  cost  the  integrity  of  the  Union  and  country  which 
that  Government  was  instituted  to  preserve.  But  in  all 
this  he  was  under  the  inspiration  of  a  patriotism  that 
always  dwelt  in  his  heart,  though  in  these  latter  years 
he  seems  to  have  been  raised  to  an  energy,  enthusiasm, 
and  eainestness  of  effort,  that  indicate  a  deeper  and 
stronger  conviction  that  he  was  right  than  he  exhibited 
or  perhaps  ever  experienced  before. 

This  is  the  true  interpretation,  I  conceive,  to  be  put 
upon  Mr.  Everett's  political  course  as  a  public  man. 
In  our  estimate  of  him  intellectually,  it  will  not  be 
maintained,  I  presume,  that  Mr.  Everett  was  one  of 
those  grand,  original,  creative,  inventive,  productive 
minds,  that  strike  out  new  paths  in  science,  philosophy, 
or  the  policies  of  States.  Such  minds  come  upon  the 
world  only  in  the  cycle  of  centuries.  But  he  had  a 
mind  of  vast  powers,  capable  of  comprehending  prin 
ciples,  gathering  up  details,  and  making  use  of  both. 
He  had  a  conscientious,  unwearied  industry,  and  conse 
quently  accumulated  vast  stores  of  knowledge  in  all  the 
departments  of  art,  science,  history,  and  literature.  He 
had  a  wonderful  memory,  raised  to  its  highest  power  by 
constant  culture  and  exercise.  He  had  a  rare  com- 


34  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

bination  of  intellectual,  moral,  and  physical  faculties,  and 
above  all,  he  had  the  power  of  using  all  his  faculties 
and  all  his  acquisitions  with  grace,  beauty,  and  dignity, 
so  that  he  touched  nothing  that  he  did  not  illustrate 
and  adorn,  and  came  before  us  ever,  on  all  occasions, 
with  a  freshness  and  force  that  charmed  and  instructed. 
As  is  well  known  to  his  intimate  friends,  he  was  singu 
larly  kind,  tender,  faithful  and  true  in  every  domestic 
relation  of  life,  and  to  all  the  claims  of  kindred  and 
friendship,  with  a  warm  heart  under  a  reserved  manner, 
and  a  sympathizing  spirit  under  lips  often  reticent ;  and 
if,  remembering  this,  we  do  justice  to  his  private,  per 
sonal  character,  and  then  look  at  his  public  career,  at 
the  wide  circle  of  varied  offices  which  he  successively 
held,  at  the  labor  performed,  the  ability  displayed"  in 
each ;  if  we  add  to  these  his  works  as  a  scholar  and  a 
literary  man,  —  his  magnificent  orations,  all  of  them  such 
masterpieces  of  eloquence,  pure  and  elevating  in  their 
impression ;  broad,  noble,  generous  in  their  thoughts  ; 
breathing  ever  the  spirit  of  piety  and  patriotism,  fitted 
to  instruct  our  people  and  unfold  our  history,  while  they 
adorn  our  literature,  —  his  numerous  contributions  to  the 
periodical  press,  especially  those  to  the  North  American 
Review,  often  profound  discussions  of  grave  questions  in 
literature  and  philosophy  ;  if  we  then  crown  all  with  the 
noble  and  patriotic  labors  of  the  last  four  years,  we  find 
enough  surely  in  this  survey  to  win  for  him  alike  our 
admiration  and  our  gratitude  ;  enough,  and  more  than 
enough,  to  dispose  us  to  bow  before  his  memory  in  rever 
ence,  and  accord  to  him  the  name  and  the  fame  of  being  a 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  35 

great  man.  Where  shall  we  find  one  who  in  such  varied 
spheres  has  done  so  much  and  done  it  so  well  ?  His 
was  a  nohle  life  and  character,  and  his  career,  followed 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  was  marvellous  in  its 
early  precocity,  its  growing  wisdom,  its  ever  increasing 
breadth,  and  its  grand  conclusion.  He  was  a  Franklin 
Medal  scholar  in  the  old  North  Grammar  School  at  the 
age  of  ten,  a  Franklin  Medal  scholar  at  the  Public  Latin 
School  at  thirteen,  chief  in  his  class  at  Cambridge  at 
seventeen,  a  tutor  in  the  University  at  eighteen,  an 
ordained  minister  of  the  Gospel  before  he  was  twenty, 
appointed  to  a  professorship  of  Greek  literature  before  he 
was  twenty-one,  elected  a  member  of  Congress  at  thirty  ; 
and  thence,  after  a  few  years'  service  in  the  halls  of  na 
tional  legislation,  he  was  called  to  the  Chief  Magistracy 
of  this  State,  all  of  whose  affairs  he  directed  with  wisdom, 
dignity,  and  usefulness,  —  and  thence  to  represent  his 
country  abroad  in  one  of  its  most  important  and  honorable 
foreign  embassies,  —  and  thence,  on  his  return  to  his 
native  land,  to  preside  over  the  interests  of  learning  at  its 
oldest  and  most  advanced  University,  —  and  thence  to  a 
seat  in  the  National  Cabinet  for  the  Department  of  State, 
—  and  thence  to  a  seat  in  that  august  body,  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States, —  and  thence,  through  noble  and  patri 
otic  labors,  to  a  higher  and  broader  place  than  he  had 
ever  held  before,  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen ;  and 
when  he  had  attained  to  this  grand  preeminence,  to  be 
the  foremost  private  citizen  in  all  the  land,  holding  no 
public  office,  but  wielding  a  power  and  doing  a  service 
which  mere  office  could  never  do,  >vearing  this  great 


36  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

distinction  with  unaffected  modesty,  walking  among  us 
with  none  of  the  infirmities  but  all  the  glory  of  age  upon 
his  person,  and  the  wisdom  of  age  in  his  speech,  —  then 
the  beautiful  and  fitting  end  came,  and  without  a  linger 
ing  sickness,  without  a  shadow  upon  his  noble  faculties, 
suddenly  he  died.  Alone  in  his  solitary  preeminence, 
alone,  as  it  were,  he  died ;  and  that  cold  Sunday  morning 
air,  that  brought  a  chill  to  our  bodies,  as  it  swept  through 
our  streets  and  by  our  doors  with  its  sad  announcement, 
"  Edward  Everett  is  dead !  "  brought  a  chill  to  our  hearts 
which  the  warmth  of  many  summers  will  not  dispel,  and 
left  an  image  and  a  memory  there  that  will  abide  with  all 
of  us,  beautiful  and  bright,  so  long  as  we  live.  Mr. 
President,  I  second  the  resolutions. 

The  Hon.  John  C.   Gray  then  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  Apart  from  the  intimation  with 
which  I  have  been  honored  through  you  and  other 
respected  friends,  I  might  have  been  prompted  by  my 
own  feelings  to  offer  a  few  remarks  on  this  most  solemn 
and  interesting  occasion.  One  of  the  few  remaining 
companions  of  my  youth  has  departed.  An  uninterrupted 
friendship  of  nearly  sixty  years  has  been  dissolved. 
But  I  am  not  here  to  speak  of  my  own  loss  or  my  own 
feelings,  but  to  contribute  in  doing  justice  to  the  memory 
of  the  deceased.  The  theme  is  a  most  copious  one. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  to  analyze  the  character  of  our 
friend,  still  less  to  indulge  in  vague  and  extravagant 
eulogy.  I  prefer  to  speak  briefly  of  those  points  in  his 
character  which  have  stamped  themselves  most  deeply 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  37 

on  my  own  memory.  We  were  of  the  same  class  in 
college,  and  for  two  years  of  our  college  life  occupied 
the  same  apartment.  I  have  ever  looked  back  on  that 
association  as  one  of  the  most  valuable,  as  well  as  one 
of  the  most  gratifying,  of  my  early  days.  His  ripeness 
of  judgment  was  not  less  remarkable  than  the  precocity 
of  his  genius.  But  there  is  yet  higher  praise. 

I  can  say,  and  you  perceive  that  I  had  some  means 
of  knowing,  that  I  never  knew  one  who  preserved  a 
more  unruffled  temper.  Not  a  single  instance  can  I 
recollect  of  irritability.  Such  a  temper  must  of  neces 
sity  be  its  own  reward,  and  I  think  we  may  fairly 
ascribe  to  it  much  of  his  subsequent  greatness.  For, 
sir,  among  the  many  weighty  truths  which  fell  from 
his  lips,  I  recollect  none  more  striking  than  a  remark 
in  his  lecture  to  the  working-men,  while  recommending 
tl^e  improvement  of  their  leisure  hours.  "  Generally 
speaking,"  he  observes,  "  our  business  allows  us  time 
enough,  if  our  passions  would  but  spare  us."  Never 
man  more  faithfully  practised  as  he  preached.  In  the 
course  of  his  life  he  had  his  share  of  those  chastening 
dispensations  which  come  in  various  shapes  and  degrees 
to  every  one.  But  none  of  them  caused  the  slightest 
remission  in  his  unwearied  industry.  The  great  sum 
mons  which  awaits  us  all  found  him  at  his  work,  and 
so  it  would  have  done,  come  when  it  might.  I  shall 
say  little  more  of  his  college  life.  New  England  edu 
cation  was  not  then  what  it  has  since  become.  Mr. 
Everett  improved  his  literary  advantages  to  the  utmost, 
and  bore  off  the  first  honors. 


38  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

I  pass  over  his  short  but  brilliant  ministry  in  the 
pulpit  and  his  years  of  assiduous  study  in  foreign 
countries.  Shortly  after  his  return  he  assumed  the  post 
of  editor  of  our  leading  review.  It  was  at  a  most  inter 
esting  period.  This  country  and  Great  Britain  had 
closed  their  contests  by  an  honorable  peace,  and  there 
was  on  our  side  a  general  disposition  to  cultivate  a 
friendly  and  respectful  feeling  towards  our  late  adver 
saries.  This  certainly  was  not  fully  reciprocated.  The 
leading  British  reviews  seemed  to  agree  in  nothing  so 
much  as  in  speaking  of  our  country  and  its  institutions 
with  hatred  or  contempt.  Mr.  Everett  felt  it  his  duty 
to  stand  forth  in  defence  of  our  good  name.  It  is  not 
a  little  to  his  praise  that  while  he  did  this  most  ably 
and  earnestly,  he  always  preserved  the  dignity  befitting 
his  cause  and  himself,  and  never  descended  to  meet  his 
antagonists  with  their  own  weapons.  There  is  good 
reason  to  believe  that  his  candid  and  manly  appeals  to 
the  good  sense  of  the  people  of  England  were  not  in 
vain,  and  that  they  contributed  to  create  among  educated 
Englishmen  a  feeling  better  becoming  them  and  more 
just  to  us,  a  feeling  which  for  a  long  time  seemed  prev 
alent,  and  which  we  had  hoped  would  have  been  general 
and  permanent.  Mr.  Everett's  able  and  eloquent  defences 
of  the  good  name  of  his  country  naturally  led  to  invi 
tations  to  serve  her  in  public  trusts. 

I  will  not  pretend  to  say  that  such  invitations  were 
unacceptable.  Suffice  it  to  remark  that,  if  he  desired 
public  life,  he  never  accepted  an  office  which  was  not 
properly  offered,  never  purchased  one  by  pledges  in 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  39 

advance,  direct  or  indirect,  and  never  for  a  moment 
used  his  position  for  the  emolument  of  himself  or  his 
friends.  What  I  have  more  to  say  will  be  devoted  to 
his  personal  character.  A  spotless  private  character  has 
ever  been  considered  in  New  England,  and  I  trust  not 
in  New  England  alone,  as  one  of  the  elements  of  true 
greatness,  and  Heaven  forbid  that  it  should  ever  be  held 
in  light  estimation  !  This  merit  was  his  beyond  impeach 
ment, —  not  his  alone,  most  certainly,  but  his  eminence 
in  other  respects  rendered  his  example  in  this  more 
conspicuous,  and  thus  more  widely  beneficial.  Of  this 
character  I  shall  notice  one  leading  feature,  —  I  mean 
his  wakeful  and  unremitted  disposition  to  benefit  others. 
If  judged  by  his  fruits,  we  must  allow  that  Edward 
Everett  was  a  most  benevolent  man.  His  exertions  and 
resources  of  mind,  body,  or  estate  were  most  freely 
imparted  on  every  reasonable  call,  —  I  should  say  on 
every  reasonable  opportunity.  Whether  the  applicant 
was  a  friend  or  a  stranger,  the  occasion  conspicuous  or 
unconspicuous,  it  was  enough  for  him  that  he  could 
serve  or  oblige  in  great  or  small.  And  now,  sir,  I 
will  close  by  a  few  inquiries.  No  one  will  suspect  me 
of  disparaging  any  of  our  eminent  men,  departed  or 
surviving,  when  I  ask  — 

Has  any  one  among  us  ever  been  more  distinguished 
by  a  noble  use  of  noble  endowment?  Has  there  been 
any  one  less  obnoxious  to  the  charge  of  talents  wasted 
and  time  misspent ;  any  one  who  could  say  with  more 
truth  in  words  he  once  felt  compelled  to  utter,  that  he 
knew  not  how  the  bread  of  idleness  tasted?  Has  any 


40  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

one  done  more,  by  his  wise  and  eloquent  productions,  to 
elevate,  instruct,  and  refine  the  minds  of  his  countrymen  1 
Finally,  has  any  one  been  more  distinguished  by  exem 
plary  fidelity  in  public  office  and  by  constant  kindness 
and  benevolence  in  private  life?  Few  higher  eulogies 
can  be  uttered  than  the  reply  which  must  rise  to  the 
lips  of  every  one. 

George  Ticknor,  Esq.  then  addressed  the  meeting  as  follows  : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  ask  your  permission  to  say  a  few 
words  concerning  the  eminent  associate  and  cherished 
friend  whom  we  have  lost, —  so  sadly,  so  suddenly  lost. 
It  is  but  little  that  I  can  say  becoming  the  occasion,  so 
well  was  he  known  of  all ;  for,  in  his  early  youth,  he  rose 
to  a  height,  which  has  led  us  to  watch  and  honor  and 
understand,  from  the  first,  his  long  and  brilliant  career. 

On  looking  back  over  the  two  centuries  and  a  half  of 
this  our  New  England  history,  I  recollect  not  more  than 
three  or  four  persons  who,  during  as  many  years  of  a  life 
protracted  as  his  was  beyond  threescore  and  ten,  have  so 
much  occupied  the  attention  of  the  country, —  I  do  not 
remember  a  single  one,  who  has  presented  himself  under 
such  various,  distinct,  and  remarkable  aspects  to  classes 
of  our  community  so  separate,  thus  commanding  a  de 
gree  of  interest  from  each,  whether  scholars,  theolo 
gians,  or  statesmen,  which  in  the  aggregate  of  its  popular 
influence  has  become  so  extraordinary.  For  he  has  been, 
to  a  marvellous  degree  successful,  in  whatever  he  has 
touched.  His  whole  way  of  life  for  above  fifty  years 
can  now  be  traced  back  by  the  monuments  which  he 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  41 

erected  with  his  own  hand  as  he  advanced ;  each  seem 
ing,  at  the  time,  to  be  sufficient  for  the  reputation  of  one 
man.  Few  here  are  old  enough  to  remember  when  the 
first  of  these  graceful  monuments  rose  before  us  ;  none 
of  us  I  apprehend  is  so  young,  that  he  will  survive  the 
splendor  of  their  long  line.  And,  now  that  we  have 
come  to  its  end,  and  that  it  seems  as  if  the  whole  air 
were  filled  with  our  sorrowful  and  proud  recollections,  as 
it  is  with  the  light  at  noonday,  we  feel  with  renewed 
force  that  we  have  known  him  as  we  have  known  very 
few  men  of  our  time.  And  this  is  true.  How,  then, 
can  I  say  anything  that  shall  be  worthy  of  memory  ; 
still  less  anything  that  is  fit  for  record  ? 

When  he  was  ten  or  eleven  years  of  age  and  I  was 
about  three  years  older,  his  family  came  to  live  within  a 
few  doors  of  my  father's  house  and  subsequently  removed 
to  a  contiguous  estate.  But,  at  this  time,  Mr.  President, 
when  the  City  of  Boston,  I  suppose,  was  not  one  fifth  as 
large  as  it  is  now,  neighborhood  implied  kindly  acquaint 
ance.  I  soon  knew  his  elder  brother,  Alexander,  then 
the  leader  of  his  class  at  Cambridge,  while  I  was  a 
student  in  a  class  one  year  later,  at  Dartmouth  College. 
I  at  once  conceived  a  strong  admiration  for  that  remark 
able  scholar;  —  an  admiration,  let  me  add,  which  has  never 
been  diminished  since.  The  younger  brother,  of  whom 
I  saw  little,  was  then  in  that  humble  school  in  Short 
Street  which  he  has  made  classical  by  his  occasional 
allusions  to  it,  and  to  the  two  "Websters  who  were  his 
teachers  there.  From  the  elder  of  these,  who  was  fre 
quently  at  my  father's  house,  T  used  to  hear  much  about 


42  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

the  extraordinary  talents  and  progress  of  this  younger 
Everett ;  praise  which  my  admiration  of  his  brother  pre 
vented  me,  I  fear,  from  receiving,  for  a  time,  with  so 
glad  a  welcome  as  I  ought  to  have  done.  During  the 
two  or  three  subsequent  years,  while  the  younger  brother 
was  at  Exeter  or  beginning  his  career  at  Cambridge,  I 
knew  little  of  him,  though  I  was  much  with  the  elder 
and  belonged  to  at  least  one  pleasant  club  of  which  he 
was  a  member. 

The  first  occasion  on  which  the  younger  scholar's  de 
lightful  character  broke  upon  me,  with  its  true  attributes, 
is  still  fresh  in  my  recollection.  It  was  in  the  summer  of 
1809.  Mr.  Alexander  Everett  was  then  about  to  embark 
for  St.  Petersburg,  as  the  private  secretary  of  Mr.  John 
Quincy  Adams,  and  a  few  nights  before  he  left  us,  he 
gave  a  supper — saddened,  indeed,  by  the  parting  that  was 
so  soon  to  follow,  but  still  a  most  agreeable  supper — to 
eight  or  ten  of  his  personal  friends,  one  of  whom  (Dr. 
Bigelow)  I  now  see  before  me  ; —  the  last,  except  myself, 
remaining  of  that  well  remembered  symposium.  The 
younger  brother  was  there,  so  full  of  gayety  —  unassum 
ing  but  irrepressible  —  so  full  of  whatever  is  attractive  in 
manner  or  in  conversation,  that  I  was  perfectly  carried 
captive  by  his  light  and  graceful  humor.  And  this,  let 
me  here  say,  has  always  been  a  true  element  of  his  char 
acter.  He  was  never  at  any  period  of  his  life  a  saturnine 
man.  In  his  youth  he  overflowed  with  animal  spirits ; 
and,  although  from  the  time  of  his  entrance  into  political 
life,  with  the  grave  cares  and  duties  that  were  imposed 
upon  him,  the  lightheartedness  of  his  nature  was  some- 


MEMORIAL   OF    EDWARD    EVERETT.  43 

what  oppressed  or  obscured,  it  was  always  there.  There 
was  never  a  time  I  think  —  excepting  in  those  days  of 
trial  and  sorrow  that  come  to  all  —  in  which,  among  the 
private  friends  with  whom  he  was  most  intimate,  he  was 
not  cheerful,  nay  charmingly  amusing.  It  was  so  the 
very  day  before  his  death.  He  was  suffering  from  an 
oppression  on  the  lungs ;  and,  as  I  sat  with  him,  he 
could  speak  only  in  whispers ;  but,  even  then,  his  natural 
playfulness  was  not  wanting. 

But  from  the  time  of  that  delightful  supper  in  1809, 
my  regard  never  failed  to  be  fastened  on  him.  At  first, 
during  his  under-graduate's  life,  at  Cambridge,  I  saw  him 
seldom.  But  in  that  simpler  stage  of  our  society,  when 
the  interests  of  men  were  so  different  from  what  they 
have  become  since,  all  who  concerned  themselves  about 
letters,  were  familiar  with  what  was  done  and  doing  in 
Cambridge.  Everett,  youthful  as  he  was,  was  eminently 
the  first  scholar  there,  and  we  all  knew  it.  We  all  —  or, 
at  least,  all  of  us  who  were  young  —  read  the  "  Harvard 
Lyceum,"  which  he  edited,  and  which,  I  may  almost  say, 
he  filled  with  his  scholarship  and  humor. 

In  1811  he  was  graduated  with  the  highest  honors, 
and  pronounced,  with  extraordinary  grace  of  manner,  a 
short  oration,  on  —  if  I  rightly  remember  —  "The  Diffi 
culties  attending  a  Life  of  Letters,"  which  delighted  a 
crowded  audience,  attracted  more  than  was  usual  by  the 
expectations  that  waited  on  what  is  called  "  The  first 
part."  But  thus  far,  what  was  most  known  of  his  life 
was  strictly  academic,  and  was  only  more  widely  spread 
than  an  academic  reputation  is  wont  to  be  because  he 


44  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

was  himself  already  so  full  of  recognized  promise  and 
power.  His  time,  in  fact,  was  not  yet  come.  But  the  next 
year  it  came.  He  was  invited  to  deliver  the  customary 
poem  at  Commencement,  before  the  "  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Society."  It  was  not,  perhaps,  a  period,  when  much 
success  could  have  been  anticipated  for  anybody,  on  a 
merely  literary  occasion.  The  war  with  England  had 
been  declared  only  a  few  weeks  earlier  and  men  felt 
gloomy  and  disheartened  at  the  prospect  before  them. 
Still  more  recently  Buckminster  had  died,  only  twenty- 
eight  years  old,  but  loved  and  admired,  as  few  men  ever 
have  been  in  this  community  ;  — mourned,  too,  as  a  loss 
to  the  beginnings  of  true  scholarship  among  us,  which 
many  a  scholar  then  thought  might  hardly  be  repaired. 
But,  as  in  all  cases  of  a  general  stir  in  the  popular  feel 
ing,  there  was  an  excitement  abroad  which  permitted  the 
minds  of  men  to  be  turned  and  wielded  in  directions 
widely  different  from  that  of  the  prevailing  current.  The 
difficulty  was  to  satisfy  the  demands  in  such  a  disturbed 
condition  of  things. 

Mr.  Everett  was  then  just  in  that  "  opening  manhood" 
which  Homer,  with  his  unerring  truth,  has  called  "  the 
fairest  term  of  life."  And  how  handsome  he  was,  Mr. 
President!  We  all  know  how  remarkable  was  Milton's 
early  beauty.  An  engraving  of  him  —  a  fine  one  —  by 
Vertue,  from  a  portrait  preserved  in  the  Onslow  family, 
and  painted  when  the  poet  was  about  twenty,  is  well 
known.  But,  sir,  so  striking  was  the  resemblance  of  this 
engraving  to  our  young  friend,  that  I  remember  often 
seeing  a  copy  of  it  inscribed  with  his  name  in  capital  let- 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  45 

tors,  and  am  unable  to  say  that  the  inscription  was  amiss. 
Radiant,  then,  with  such  personal  attractions,  he  rose 
before  an  audience  already  disposed  to  receive  him  with 
extraordinary  kindness. 

His  subject  was,  "American  Poets," -certainly  not  a 
very  promising  one.  Of  course  his  treatment  of  it  was 
essentially  didactic ;  but  there  was  such  a  mixture  of 
good-natured  satire  in  it,  so  much  more  praise  willingly 
accorded  than  was  really  deserved,  such  humorous  and 
happy  allusions  to  what  was  local,  personal,  and  familiar 
to  all,  and  such  solemn  and  tender  passages  about  the 
condition  of  our  society,  and  its  anxieties  and  losses, — 
that  it  was  received  with  an  applause  which,  in  some 
respects,  I  have  never  known  equalled.  Graver  and 
grander  success  I  have  often  known  to  be  achieved,  on 
greater  occasions,  not  only  by  others  but  by  himself.  But 
never  did  I  witness  such  clear,  unmingled  delight.  Every 
thing  was  forgotten  but  the  speaker  and  what  he  chose 
we  should  remember. 

This  success,  it  should  be  recollected,  was  gained  when 
Mr.  Everett  was  only  a  little  more  than  eighteen  years 
old.  But,  sir,  in  fact,  it  had  been  gained  earlier.  The 
poem  had  been  read  when  he  was  only  about  seventeen, 
before  a  club  of  college  friends  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
senior  year,  and  had  now  been  fitted  by  a  few  additions, 
for  its  final  destination.  Its  publication  was  immediately 
demanded  and  urged.  But  on  the  whole  it  was  deter 
mined  not  to  give  it  fully  to  the  world.  Four  copies, 
however,  were  privately  struck  off  on  large  paper,  one  of 
which  I  received  at  the  time  from  the  author,  and  thirty- 


46  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.    . 

six  more  in  common  octavo,  which  were  at  once  dis 
tributed  to  other  eager  friends.  But  this  was  by  no  means 
enough.  A  little  later,  therefore,  there  were  printed, 
with  slight  alterations,  sixty  copies  more,  of  which  he 
gave  me  two,  in  an  extra  form,  marked  with  his  fair 
autograph.  I  know  not  where  three  others  are  now  to 
be  found ;  though  I  trust,  from  the  great  contemporary 
interest  in  the  poem  itself,  and  from  its  real  value,  that 
many  copies  of  it  have  been  saved. 

It  is  written  in  the  versification  consecrated  by  the 
success  of  Dryden  and  Pope ;  and  if  it  contains  lines 
marked  by  the  characteristics  of  the  early  age  at  which  it 
was  produced,  there  is  yet  a  power  in  it,  a  richness  of 
thought,  and  a  graceful  finish,  of  which  probably  few  men 
at  thirty  would  have  been  found  capable.  At  any  rate,  in 
the  hundred  and  more  years  during  which  verse  had  then 
been  printed  in  these  Colonies  and  States,  not  two  hundred 
pages,  I  think,  can  now  be  found,  which  can  be  read 
with  equal  interest  and  pleasure. 

It  was  only  a  few  weeks  afterwards,  as  nearly  as  I 
recollect,  that  he  began  to  preach.  I  heard  his  first  two 
sermons,  delivered  to  a  small  congregation  in  a  neighbor 
ing  town,  and  I  heard  him  often  afterwards.  The  effect 
was  always  the  same.  There  was  not  only  the  attractive 
manner,  which  we  had  already  witnessed  and  admired, 
but  there  was,  besides,  a  devout  tenderness,  which  had 
hardly  been  foreseen.  The  main  result,  however,  had 
been  anticipated.  He  was,  in  a  few  months,  settled  over 
the  church  in  Brattle  Street,  with  the  assent  and  admira 
tion  of  all. 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWAKD    EVERETT.  47 

But,  in  the  midst  of  his  success  in  the  pulpit,  he  was 
turned  aside  to  become  a  controversial  theologian.  Early 
in  the  autumn  of  1813,  Mr.  George  B.  English  published 
a  small  book,  entitled,  "  The  Grounds  of  Christianity 
Examined  by  Comparing  the  New  Testament  with  the 
Old."  It  was,  in  fact,  an  attack  on  the  truth  of  the  Chris 
tian  religion,  in  the  sense  of  Judaism.  Its  author,  whom 
I  knew  personally,  was  a  young  man  of  very  pleasant 
intercourse,  and  a  great  lover  of  books,  of  which  he  had 
read  many,  but  with  little  order  or  well-defined  purpose. 
He  would,  I  think,  have  been  a  man  of  letters,  if  such  a 
path  had  been  open  to  him.  A  profession,  however,  was 
needful.  He  studied  law,  but  became' dissatisfied  with  it. 
He  studied  divinity,  but  was  never  easy  in  his  course. 
His  mind  was  never  well  balanced,  or  well  settled  upon 
anything.  He  was  always  an  adventurer — just  as  much 
so  in  the  scholarlike  period  of  his  life,  as  he  was  after 
wards,  when  he  served  under  Ismail  Pasha,  in  Egypt,  and 
attempted  to  revive  the  ancient  war-chariots  armed  with 
scythes. 

His  ill-constructed  book  received  several  answers,  direct 
and  indirect,  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press ;  but  none  of 
them  was  entirely  satisfactory,  because  their  authors  had 
not  frequented  the  strange  by-paths  of  learning  in  which 
Mr.  English  had  for  some  time  been  wandering  with 
perverse  preference.  Mr.  Everett,  however,  followed 
him  everywhere  with  a  careful  scholarship  and  exact 
logic  unknown  to  his  presumptuous  adversary.  His 
"Defence  of  Christianity"  was  published  in  1814,  and  I 
still  possess  one,  out  of  half  a  dozen  copies  of  it  that  were 


48  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

printed  for  the  author's  friends,  on  extra  paper,  and  are 
become  curious  as  showing  how  ill  understood,  in  those 
simpler  days,  were  the  dainty  luxuries  of  bibliography. 
But  the  proper  end  of  the  book  was  quickly  attained. 
Mr.  English's  imperfect  and  unsound  learning  was  demol 
ished  at  a  blow ;  and,  as  has  just  been  so  happily  said  by 
Dr.  Lothrop,  the  whole  controversy,  even  Mr.  Everett's 
part  of  it,  is  forgotten,  because  it  has  been  impossible 
to  keep  up  any  considerable  interest  in  a  question  which 
he  had  so  absolutely  settled.  Mr.  Everett's  "  Defence," 
however,  will  always  remain  a  remarkable  book.  Some 
years  after  its  publication,  Professor  Monk,  of  Cambridge, 
the  biographer  of  Bentley,  and  himself  afterwards  Bishop 
of  Gloucester,  told  me  that  he  did  not  think  any  Episcopal 
library  in  England  could  be  accounted  complete  which 
did  not  possess  a  copy  of  it. 

In  the  winter  following  the  publication  of  this  book  — 
that  is,  in  the  winter  of  1814-15  —  he  was  elected  Pro 
fessor  of  Greek  Literature.  I  was  then  at  the  South, 
having  made  up  my  mind  to  pass  some  time  at  the  Uni 
versity  of  Gottingen,  and  was  endeavoring,  chiefly  among 
the  Germans  in  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania,  to  obtain 
information  concerning  the  modes  of  teaching  in  Ger 
many,  about  which  there  then  prevailed  in  New  England 
an  absolute  ignorance  now  hardly  to  be  conceived.  With 
equal  surprise  and  delight,  I  received  letters  from  my 
friend  telling  me  of  his  appointment,  and  that,  to  qualify 
himself  for  the  place  offered  him,  he  should  endeavor  to 
go  with  me  upon  what  we  both  regarded  as  a  sort  of 
adventure,  to  Germany.  Perhaps  I  should  add  that  this 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  49 

sudden  change  in  his  course  of  life  excited  no  small  com 
ment  at  the  time,  and  that,  especially  by  a  part  of  the 
parish  whose  brilliant  anticipations  he  thus  disappointed, 
it  was  not  accepted  in  a  kindly  spirit.  But  of  its  wisdom 
and  rightfulness  there  was  soon  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of 
anybody. 

We  embarked  in  April,  1815,  and  passed  a  few  weeks 
in  London,  during  the  exciting  period  of  Bonaparte's  last 
campaign,  and  just  at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 
But  we  were  in  a  hurry  to  be  at  work.  We  hastened, 
therefore,  through  Holland,  stopping  chiefly  to  buy  books, 
and  early  in  August  were  already  in  the  chosen  place  of 
our  destination.  It  was  our  purpose  to  remain  there  a 
year.  But  the  facilities  for  study  were  such  as  we  had 
never  heard  or  dreamt  of.  My  own  residence  was  in 
consequence  protracted  to  a  year  and  nine  months,  and 

Mr.  Everett's  was  protracted  yet  six  months  longer 

both  of  us  leaving  the  tempting  school  at  last  sorry  and 
unsatisfied. 

How  well  he  employed  his  time  there  the  great  results 
shown  in  his  whole  subsequent  life  have  enabled  the 
world  to  judge.  I  witnessed  the  process  from  day  to  day. 
We  were  constantly  together.  Except  for  the  first  few 
months,  when  we  could  not  make  convenient  arrange 
ments  for  it,  we  lived  in  contiguous  rooms  in  the  same 
house  —  the  house  of  Bouterwek,  the  literary  historian, 
and  a  favorite  teacher  in  the  university.  During  the 
vacations  —  except  one,  when  he  went  to  the  Hague,  to 
see  his  brother  Alexander,  then  our  Secretary  of  Legation 
in  Holland  —  we  travelled  together  about  Germany  ;  and 


50  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

every  day  in  term  time  we  went  more  or  less  to  the  same 
private  teachers,  and  the  same  lecturers.  But  he  struck 
in  his  studies  much  more  widely  than  I  did.  To  say 
nothing  of  his  constant,  indefatigable  labor  upon  the 
Greek  with  Dissen,  he  occupied  himself  a  good  deal  with 
Arabic  under  Eichhorn,  he  attended  lectures  upon  modern 
history  by  Heeren,  and  upon  the  civil  law  by  Hugo,  and 
he  followed  besides  the  courses  of  other  professors,  whose 
teachings  I  did  not  frequent  and  whose  names  I  no  longer 
remember. 

His  power  of  labor  was  prodigious ;  unequalled  in  my 
experience.  One  instance  of  it  —  the  more  striking,  per 
haps,  because  disconnected  from  his  regular  studies  —  is, 
I  think,  worth  especial  notice.  We  had  been  in  Gottin- 
gen,  I  believe,  above  a  year,  and  he  was  desirous  to  send 
home  something  of  what  he  had  learnt  about  the  modes 
of  teaching,  not  only  there  but  in  our  visits  to  the  univer 
sities  of  Leipzig,  Halle,  Jena,  and  Berlin,  and  to  the  great 
preparatory  schools  of  Meissen,  and  Pfrote.  He  had,  as 
nearly  as  I  can  recollect,  just  begun  this  task.  But  how 
so  voluminous  a  matter  was  to  be  sent  home  was  an 
important  question.  Regular  packets  there  were  none, 
even  between  New  York  and  Liverpool.  We  depended, 
therefore,  very  much  on  accident  —  altogether  on  tran 
sient  vessels.  Opportunities  from  Hamburg  were  rare 
and  greatly  valued.  Just  at  this  time  our  kind  mer 
cantile  correspondents  at  that  port  gave  us  sudden  notice 
that  a  vessel  for  Boston  would  sail  immediately.  There 
was  not  a  moment  to  be  lost ;  Mr.  Everett  threw  every 
thing  else  aside,  and  worked  for  thirty -five  consecutive 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  51 

hours  on  his  letter,  despatching  it  as  the  mail  was  closing. 
But,  though  sadly  exhausted  by  his  labor,  he  was  really 
uninjured,  and  in  a  day  or  two  was  fully  refreshed  and 
restored.  I  need  not  say  that  a  man  who  did  this  was  in 
earnest  in  what  he  undertook.  But  let  me  add,  Mr. 
President,  that,  by  the  constant,  daily  exercise  of  dispo 
sitions  and  powers  like  these,  he  laid  during  those  two  or 
three  years  in  Gottingen,  the  real  foundations  on  which 
his  great  subsequent  success,  in  so  many  widely  different 
ways,  safely  rested.  I  feel  as  sure  of  this  as  I  do  of  any 
fact  of  the  sort  within  my  knowledge. 

When  I  left  Gottingen,  he  and  a  young  American 
friend  (Stephen  H.  Perkins) — then  under  his  charge,  and 
wrho  still  survives  —  accompanied  me  on  my  first  day's 
journey.  At  Hesse  Cassel  we  separated,  thinking  to 
meet  again  in  the  south  of  Europe,  and  visit  together 
Greece  and  Asia  Minoi%  which,  from  the  time  of  the 
appearance  of  "  Childe  Harold,"  four  or  five  years  earlier, 
had  been  much  in  our  young  thoughts  and  imaginations. 
But  "  Forth  rushed  the  Levant  and  the  Ponent  winds." 
A  few  months  afterwards,  at  Paris,  I  received  the  appoint 
ment  of  Professor  of  French  and  Spanish  Literature,  at 
Cambridge  ;  and,  from  that  moment,  it  was  as  plain  that 
my  destination  was  Madrid,  as  it  was  that  he  was  bound 
to  go  to  Athens  and  Constantinople.  We  did  not,  there 
fore,  meet  again  until  his  return  home,  in  the  autumn  of 
1819,  where  I  had  preceded  him  by  a  few  months. 

From  this  time  Mr.  Everett's  life  has  been  almost  con 
stantly  a  public  one,  and  all  have  been  able  to  judge  him 
freely  and  fully.  lie  began  his  lectures  on  Greek  litcra- 


52  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

tare  at  Cambridge  the  next  summer,  and  I  went  from 
Boston  regularly  to  hear  them,  for  the  pleasure  and 
instruction  they  gave  me.  The  notes  I  then  took  of  them, 
and  which  I  still  preserve,  will  bear  witness  to  the  merit 
just  ascribed  to  them  by  the  friend  on  my  left,  who  heard 
the  same  course  somewhat  later. 

But  Mr.  Everett  was,  in  another  sense,  already  a  public 
man.  From  the  natural  concern  he  felt  in  the  fate  of  a 
country  he  had  so  recently  visited,  he  took  a  great  interest, 
as  early  as  1821-23,  in  the  Greek  Revolution,  and  wrote 
and  spoke  on  it,  both  as  a  philanthropic  and  as  a  political 
question.  In  1824  he  was  elected  to  Congress.  There 
and  elsewhere,  like  other  public  men  of  eminence,  he  has 
had  his  political  trials  and  his  political  opponents ;  some 
times  generous,  sometimes  unworthy,  but  never  touch 
ing  the  unspotted  purity  of  his  character  and  purposes. 
All  such  discussions,  however,  find  no  becoming  place 
within  these  doors.  We  recognize  here  no  such  divisions 
of  opinion  respecting  our  lamented  associate.  We  remem 
ber  his  great  talents,  and  the  gentleness  that  added  to 
their  power ;  his  extraordinary  scholarship,  and  the  rich 
fruits  it  bore  ;  his  manifold  public  services,  and  the  just 
honors  that  have  followed  them.  All  this  we  remember. 
In  all  of  it  we  rejoice.  We  recollect,  too,  that  for  five-and- 
forty  years,  he  has  been  our  pride  and  ornament,  as  a 
member  of  this  Society.  But  we  recognize  no  external 
disturbing  element  in  these  our  happy  recollections.  To 
us,  he  has  always  been  the  same.  At  any  meeting  that 
we  have  held  since  he  became  fully  known  to  us  and  to 
the  country,  the  beautiful,  appropriate,  and  truthful  reso- 


MEMORIAL   OF    EDWARD    EVERETT.  53 

lutions  now  on  your  table,  might  —  if  he  had  just  been 
taken  from  us  as  he  has  been  now  —  have  been  passed  by 
us  with  as  much  earnestness  and  unanimity,  as  they  will 
be  amidst  our  sorrow  to-night.  They  do  but  fitly  complete 
our  record  of  what  has  always  been  true.  And  let  us  feel 
thankful,  as  we  adopt  this  record  and  make  it  our  own, 
that  —  grand  and  gratifying  as  *it  is  —  neither  the  next 
generation  nor  any  that  may  follow  will  desire  to  have  a 
word  of  it  obliterated  or  altered. 

lion.  John  H.  Clifford  then  proceeded  as  follows  : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  Having  been  unable  to  participate  in 
the  last  offices  of  respect  to  the  remains  of  our  departed 
associate,  and  feeling  obliged  to  decline  the  distinguished 
service  to  which  I  was  invited,  of  pronouncing  a  more 
elaborate  address  upon  his  life  and  character  before  the 
two  Houses  of  the  Legislature,  I  could  not  forego  the 
opportunity  of  uniting  in  this  office  of  commemoration,  with 
an  Association  in  which  he  took  so  generous  an  interest, 
and  of  which  he  was  so  eminent  a  member. 

However  inadequate  must  be  any  expression  of  my 
sense  of  the  loss  we  have  sustained,  I  cannot  doubt  that 
the  assurance  of  a  simple,  heartfelt  tribute  of  personal 
affection  and  gratitude,  when  he  was  to  be  remembered 
in  a  circle  like  this,  would  have  been  more  grateful  to  him 
than  any  s.tudied  words  of  eulogy,  though  they  were  pol 
ished  into  a  rhetoric  as  brilliant  as  his  own. 

It  is  thus  only,  that  I  desire  to  speak  of  him  —  my  hon 
ored  chief,  my  wise  and  trusted  counsellor  —  my  ever 
constant  friend.  It  was  from  his  hands  that  I  received, 


54  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

now  just  thirty  years  ago,  my  first  commission  in  the 
service  of  the  State ;  and  from  that  period  up  to  the 
close  of  the  last  month  of  the  last  year,  he  honored 
me  with  a  correspondence  which  I  have  carefully  pre 
served  as  a  precious  possession  for  myself  and  for  my 
children.  You  will  pardon  me,  Mr.  President,  if,  in 
this  brief  review  of  what  I  owe  to  the  influence  of  his 
friendship  and  his  counsels,  I  shall  invoke  his  presence, 
still  to  speak  to  us,  by  a  free  and  unreserved  reference 
to  this  correspondence. 

Admitted  to  the  intimate  intercourse  of  a  member  of  his 
military  family,  during  the  entire  term  of  his  service  as 
Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  he  never  afterwards 
ceased  to  manifest  the  interest  in  me  which  that  inter 
course  implied,  and  the  value  of  which  no  poor  words 
of  mine,  of  public  or  of  private  acknowledgment  can 
ever  measure  or  repay.  Of  that  military  family,  Mr. 
President, —  and  "  we  were  seven," — who  bore  his  com 
mission  during  those  four  years  of  brilliant  service  to  his 
native  Commonwealth,  you  and  I  are  the  only  survivors, 
to  render  these  last  honors  to  our  illustrious  chief. 

In  the  review  of  his  remarkable  career,  to  which, 
since  its  triumphant  close  on  earth,  the  minds  of  so 
many  have  been  turned  who  never  knew  him  otherwise 
than  in  his  public  character,  I  am  persuaded  that  some 
impressions  respecting  him,  which  those  who  were 
brought  nearest  to  him  know  to  be  utterly  unfounded, 
are  certain  to  be  corrected  when  the  materials  of  a  just 
judgment  of  all  that  he  was,  and  all  that  he  did,  are 
open  to  the  examination  of  his  countrymen. 


MEMORIAL    OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  55 

It  has  been  said  of  him  that  he  was  of  a  cold  and 
unsympathizing  nature.  There  never  was  a  more  mis 
taken  judgment  of  any  public  man  than  this.  If 
he  possessed  any  trait  more  distinctly  marked  than 
another,  it  was  his  unfaltering  fidelity  to  his  friends, 
and  his  warm  and  generous  interest  in  everything  that 
touched  their  happiness  and  welfare,  as  well  in  the 
trials  and  the  sorrows,  as  in  the  successes  and  the  sun 
shine  of  life. 

While  he  was  representing  the  country  with  such 
signal  ability  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  and  in  the 
midst  of  the  grave  and  perplexing  questions  which  he 
there  discussed  and  disposed  of  with  such  masterly 
skill,  I  had  occasion  to  communicate  to  him  the  death 
of  a  much  loved  child,  in  whom  he  had  taken  great 
interest,  and  who  bore  his  name.  In  a  letter  written 
on  the  receipt  of  the  intelligence,  and  under  circum 
stances  that  might  well  have  excused  him  from  an 
immediate  reply, —  and  which  would  have  excused  him, 
if  that  reply  had  been  prompted  by  anything  less  than 
a  sincere  and  unaffected  sympathy,  which  does  not 
belong  to  a  cold  and  formal  nature, —  he  says:  "I  was 
staying  at  Sir  Robert  Peel's,  with  a  very  agreeable 
party,  consisting  of  several  of  the  cabinet  ministers,  and 
my  diplomatic  brethren,  when  I  received  your  letter, 
which  has  cast  a  shade  of  sadness  over  my  visit  that 
I  feel  as  little  inclination  as  ability  to  throw  off.  .  . 
.  .  .  But  let  us  not  speak  of  our  beloved  ones  as 
taken  from  us.  They  are,  in  truth,  not  lost,  but  gone 
before.  They  have  accomplished,  in  the  dawn  of  life 


56  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

the  work  which  grows  harder,  the  longer  the  time  that 
is  given  us  to  do  it." 

Equally  erroneous,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  opinion  that 
Mr.  Everett,  as  a  public  man,  was  lacking  in  moral 
courage.  There  were  occasions  in  his  life  when  it  would 
have  required  less  courage,  and  have  cost  a  smaller  sacri 
fice  to  escape  this  imputation,  and  secure  to  himself  the 
popular  favor,  than  it  did  to  invite  it.  But  his  resolute 
adherence  to  his  own  conscientious  convictions,  his  large 
and  comprehensive  patriotism,  his  unswerving  nationality 
and  love  of  the  Union,  and  the  knowledge  which  a  schol 
ar's  studies  and  a  statesman's  observations  had  given  him 
of  the  perils  by  which  that  Union  was  environed,  closed 
many  an  avenue  of  popularity  to  him,  which  bolder,  but 
not  more  courageous,  public  men  than  he  could  consent 
to  walk  in. 

If  timidity  consists  in  an  absence  of  all  temerity  and 
rashness,  of  entire  freedom  from  that  reckless  spirit  which 
«o  often  leads  "  fools  to  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to 
tread,"  let  it  be  ever  remembered  to  his  honor,  that  Mr. 
Everett  was  a  timid  statesman.  But  if  the  virtue  of 
moderation  is  still  to  be  counted  among  the  excellent 
qualities  of  a  ruler  or  counsellor,  in  conducting  the  com 
plex  and  delicate  questions  of  policy  which  affect  the 
well-being  of  a  country  like  ours,  and  which  bear  upon  its 
future  fortunes  as  well  as  its  present  favor,  let  it  also  be 
remembered  that  our  departed  statesman,  while  he  ad 
hered  inflexibly  to  his  convictions  of  the  right,  was  not 
"  ashamed  to  let  his  moderation  be  known  unto  all  men." 

In  this  aspect  of  his  character,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  57 

the  great  Pater  Patrice,  whom  he  had  so  diligently  studied, 
and  his  oration  upon  whom  wrought  as  great  a  work 
upon  his  countrymen  as  his  unsurpassed  biographical 
sketch  of  him  in  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  "  has  had 
upon  the  foreign  estimate  of  Washington,  was  "  his  great 
example,  as  he  was  his  theme." 

It  has  been  not  an  unfrequent  criticism  upon  Mr.  Ever 
ett's  career,  that  it  was  in  a  certain  sense  a  failure, 
because,  with  his  scholarly  tastes,  his  patient  industry,  his 
affluent  learning  and  his  great  opportunities,  he  would 
leave  behind  him  no  '*  great  work"  as  the  fruit  of  all  his 
accomplishments  and  powers.  If  it  be  a  worthy  ambition 
in  one  of  great  endowments  and  liberal  culture,  to  do  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number  of  his  fellow-men, 
and  to  make  the  world  better  for  his  having  lived  in  it, 
this  is  a  mistaken  criticism.  It  is  true  his  resources  were 
ample  to  have  accomplished  any  "  great  work,"  such  as  this 
criticism  implies,  in  any  of  the  fields  of  intellectual  activ 
ity,  from  which  great  scholars  gather  their  ripened  har 
vests.  He  could  have  graced  the  shelves  of  our  libraries 
with  precious  octavos  of  history,  or  science,  or  literature. 
But  to  have  done  this  he  would  have  foregone  that 
"greater  work"  which  he  did  accomplish,  and  of  which 
the  three  volumes  already  published,  to  be  followed  we 
trust  by  many  more,  will  stand  forever  as  the  witness  and 
the  memorial  —  "  Non  omnia  possumus  omnes."  And  he 
appointed  to  himself  the  nobler  task  of  elevating  the  pub 
lic  taste,  —  of  bringing  before  a  working  people  the  high 
est  truths  of  philosophy  in  a  style  of  adaptation  to  their 
wants  before  unknown  —  of  diffusing  throughout  the  com- 


58  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

munity  a  knowledge  of  great  historical  events  and  their 
application  to  the  duties  of  living  men,  —  of  implanting  in 
the  breasts  of  the  people  a  reverence  for  their  God-fearing 
ancestors,  and  in  justifying  the  ways  of  Providence  to 
them  and  their  posterity,  —  of  displaying  before  them  the 
brightest  deeds  and  the  most  heroic  sacrifices  of  patriot 
ism,  and  thereby  inspiring  in  them  the  warmest  love  of 
their  country,  and  instructing  them  in  the  duties  they 
owed  to  her,  —  all  these,  and  more,  of  the  glorious  proofs 
that  his  life  was  a  noble  success  and  in  no  sense  a  failure, 
glow  in  every  page  of  his  writings,  not  one  of  which  in 
dying  would  he  need  to  blot,  from  that  first  lecture 
before  the  Mechanics'  Institute  in  Charlestown,  down  to 
that  last  fervid,  Christian  appeal  in  Faneuil  Hall. 

Mr.  President,  I  speak  in  the  faith  of  the  clearest  con 
viction,  that  whatever  of  unjust,  or  censorious,  or  honestly 
mistaken  judgment,  has  ever  been  passed  upon  our  de 
parted  friend,  will  be  surely  modified,  if  not  entirely 
reversed,  in  all  candid  minds,  under  the  lights  with  which 
a  true  and  complete  history  of  his  life  will  illuminate  it, 
from  its  earliest  promise  to  its  latest  most  glorious  record. 
Already  one  of  his  contemporaries,  who  has  made  his 
own  name  "  imperishable  in  immortal  song,"  in  words  of 
manly  confession,  as  honorable  to  their  author  as  they  are 
just  to  the  memory  of  him  of  whom  they  were  spoken, 
has  anticipated  the  verdict  of  history. 

"  If,"  says  Mr.  Bryant,  "  I  have  uttered  anything  in 
derogation  of  Mr.  Everett's  public  character  at  times  when 
it  seemed  to  me  that  he  did  not  resist  with  becoming 
spirit  the  aggressions  of  wrong,  I  now,  looking  back  upon 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  59 

his  noble  record  of  the  last  four  years,  retract  it  at  his 
grave,  —  I  lay  upon  his  hearse  the  declaration  of  my 
sorrow  that  I  saw  not  then  the  depth  of  his  worth,  —  that 
I  did  not  discern  under  the  conservatism  that  formed  a 
part  of  his  nature,  that  generous  courage  which  a  great 
emergency  could  so  nobly  awaken." 

But  the  praises  of  men  were  now  of  little  worth,  had 
we  not  one  source  of  pride  and  affection  open  to  us  in  the 
contemplation  of  this  beneficent  life,  the  value  of  which 
no  words  of  eulogy,  apt  as  they  are  to  run  into  exaggera 
tion,  can  express  too  strongly.  The  manifold  temptations 
of  public  life,  whether  insinuating  themselves  through 
our  domestic  politics,  or  the  social  and  political  ethics  of 
the  national  capitol,  in  the  arts  of  diplomacy  or  through 
.the  enervating  allurements  of  foreign  courts,  which  in 
some  of  their  Protean  forms  are  so  apt  to  assail  the  home- 
taught  virtue  of  our  public  men,  never  left  a  trace  of  their 
influence  upon  the  purity  of  his  unsullied  character.  To 
those  who  had  the  closest  view  of  him,  there  was  always 
apparent  his  constant  recognition  of  the  presence  and 
direction  of  a  Higher  Power  in  all  the  concerns  of  life. 
Abundant  illustrations  of  this,  indeed,  may  be  found  in  his 
published  works.  Who  that  has  read  it,  who  especially 
that  had  your  privilege  and  mine,  Mr.  President,  of  listen 
ing  to  it  as  it  fell  from  his  lips,  can  have  forgotten  that 
magnificent  passage,  in  my  judgment  the  most  eloquent 
he  ever  uttered,  in  his  speech  at  the  centennial  celebration 
at  Barnstable  in  1839?  —  a  passage  which  the  late  Chief 
Justice  Shaw,  who  was  present,  declared  to  me  was,  in  his 
opinion,  unsurpassed  in  modern  history. 


60  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

After  describing  the  condition  of  "  the  Mayflower 
freighted  with  the  destinies  of  a  continent,  as  she  crept 
almost  sinking  into  Provincetown  harbor,  utterly  inca 
pable  of  living  through  another  gale,  approaching  the 
shore  precisely  where  the  broad  sweep  of  this  remarkable 
headland  presents  almost  the  only  point  at  which  for 
hundreds  of  miles  she  could  with  any  ease  have  made  a 
harbor,"  he  adds:  "I  feel  my  spirit  raised  above  the 
sphere  of  mere  natural  agencies.  I  see  the  mountains  of 
New  England  rising  from  their  rocky  thrones.  They  rush 
forward  into  the  ocean,  settling  down  as  they  advance ; 
and  there  they  range  themselves,  a  mighty  bulwark 
around  the  heaven-directed  vessel.  Yes,  the  everlasting 
God  himself  stretches  out  the  arm  of  his  mercy  and  his 
power  in  substantial  manifestations,  and  gathers  the  meek 
company  of  his  worshippers  as  in  the  hollow  of  his 
hand." 

But  a  more  striking,  because  a  more  spontaneous 
expression  of  the  same  characteristic  spirit,  is  contained 
in  a  letter  of  farewell  which  I  received  from  him,  dated  at 
New  York  on  the  day  before  his  embarkation  for  Europe 
with  his  whole  family  in  the  summer  of  1840,  and  of 
course  written  amidst  all  the  distractions  incident  to  the 
preparations  for  his  voyage. 

The  intelligence  of  the  burning  of  the  packet  ship 
Poland  at  sea,  and  the  rescue  of  her  passengers  from 
imminent  peril  by  a  passing  vessel,  had  then  just  been 
received  in  this  country.  "  The  fate  of  the  Poland,"  he 
writes,  "  makes  me  feel  strongly  how  near  to  death  we 
are  in  the  midst  of  life.  I  embark  with  all  my  treasures 


MEMORIAL    OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  61 

with  some  misgivings.  But  having  undertaken  the  voyage 
from  proper  motives,  I  seem  to  be  in  the  path  of  duty, 
and  I  am  sure  I  am  in  the  hand  of  God.  There  are  many 
paths  to  his  presence.  And  whether  they  lead  us  singly, 
or  in  families,  or  companies,  —  whether  by  a  bed  of  lan 
guishing  on  land,  or  the  blazing  deck  of  a  burning  vessel, 
or  the  dark  abyss  of  the  sea,  can  be  of  but  little  conse 
quence  in  the  existence  of  an  undying  spirit." 

When  his  own  hour  had  come,  Mr.  President,  it  was 
through  no  such  avenue  of  suspense  and  sufferings  as 
these  that  his  Heavenly  Father  took  him  to  himself.  But 
in  welcoming  him,  as  our  faith  assures  us.  to  the  rewards 
of  a  "  good  and  faithful  servant,"  He  bore  him  from  our 
sight  so  graciously  as  to  leave  us  nothing  to  regret  from 
him,  either  in  his  death  or  in  his  life.  Why  should  we 
mourn  over  such  a  death,  —  the  serene  close  of  such  a  life 
on  earth,  the  entrance  upon  the  assured  rewards  of  the 
Life  Eternal  I 

"If  ever  lot  was  prosperously  cast, 
If  ever  life  was  like  the  lengthened  flow 
Of  some  sweet  music,  sweetness  to  the  last, 
'T  was  his."  .... 

Not  the  music  of  that  matchless  voice  alone,  whose 
inspiring  cadences  seem  still  to  linger  in  our  ears,  as  we 
assemble  in  this  room,  where  it  so  often  charmed  and 
instructed  us,  but  the  diviner  harmony  to  which  he  gave 
such  magnificent  expression  by  a  rounded  and  completed 
life,  —  a  life  that  was  mercifully  spared  to  his  country  for 
its  greatest  work  during  its  closing  years ;  whose  music, 


62  MASSACHUSETTS    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

during  those  years  of  a  nation's  regeneration,  was  but  a 
prolongation  of  the  music  of  the  Union,  by  which  he 
marched,  himself,  and  inspired  his  countrymen  to  march, 
to  the  great  conflict  with  treason  and  with  wrong. 

Here,  and  wherever  throughout  the  world,  in  all 
coming  time,  the  gospel  of  constitutional  liberty  is 
preached  among  men,  shall  this,  his  last,  greatest  work, 
;'be  told  as  a  memorial  of  him."  One  word  more,  Mr. 
President,  and  my  grateful  task  is  done. 

In  the  correspondence  from  which  I  have  so  freely 
quoted,  I  found,  a  day  or  two  ago,  a  striking  passage, 
which  seems  to  me  a  fitting  close  for  this  feeble  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  a  loved  and  honored  friend.  In  a  letter 
written  to  me  from  Washington  early  in  1854,  the  year 
that  he  resigned  his  place  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  he  says:  "I  have  never  filled  an  office  which  I  did 
not  quit  more  cheerfully  than  I  entered.  I  am  not  sure 
that  it  is  not  so  in  most  cases  with  the  last  great  act  of 
retirement,  not  from  the  offices  and  duties  of  life,  but 
from  life  itself." 

Brethren,  to  what  far-off  sphere  of  celestial  fruition 
may  we  not,  without  presumption,  in  that  spirit  of  faith 
which  he  so  strongly  cherished,  follow  our  departed 
associate,  and  hear  again  the  music  of  that  voice,  repeat 
ing  this  sentiment,  now  verified  and  made  certain  in  the 
supreme  experience  of  that  last  Sabbath  morning  ? 

Dr.  Walker  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  Leaving  it  for  others  to  speak  of  Mr. 
Everett's  eminence  as  a  scholar  and  as  a  statesman,  and 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD    EVERETT.  63 

of  the  purity  and  beauty  of  his  daily  life,  I  ask  permis 
sion  to  say  a  few  words  of  his  administration  as  President 
of  Harvard  College.  There  is,  I  believe,  a  prevailing 
impression  in  the  community,  that  this  part  of  his  public 
career  was  less  successful  than  the  rest.  If  so,  it  is 
to  be  imputed,  in  no  small  measure,  to  three  '  causes 
which  have  hindered  his  merits  and  services  as  Head 
of  the  University  from  being  duly  appreciated. 

The  first  of  these  causes  was  his  known  distaste  for  the 
office.  Most  of  us  remember,  that  when  he  was  appointed 
to  the  place,  the  community  were  of  one  mind  as  to  his 
being  precisely  the  man  to  fill  it,  —  with  a  single  excep 
tion  ;  but  that  was  an  important  exception,  for  it  was 
himself.  This  distaste  was  never  entirely  overcome ;  and 
there  are  those  who  have  construed  it  into  evidence  of 
want  of  success.  They  might  have  done  so  with  some 
show  of  reason,  if  it  had  grown  up  in  the  office  ;  for,  in 
that  case,  it  might  be  regarded  as  resulting,  at  least  in 
some  degree,  from  disappointed  hopes.  But  when  it  is 
considered  that  the  distaste  was  as  strong,  and  perhaps 
stronger,  when  he  accepted  the  office,  than  when  he  laid 
it  down,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  ground  for  such  a 
construction. 

The  second  cause  which  has  hindered  the  public  from 
duly  appreciating  Mr.  Everett's  services  to  the  College  as 
President,  is  found  in  the  nature  of  the  reforms  and 
improvements  attempted  and  actually  introduced  by  him. 
With  his  accustomed  method  and  thoroughness,  he  could 
not  do  otherwise  than  begin  at  the  beginning.  Accord 
ingly,  one  of  his  first  undertakings  was  to  prepare  and 


64  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

publish,  under  the  proper  authorities,  a  careful  revision 
of  the  college  laws.  This  was  a  most  important  and 
necessary  work,  which  cost  months  of  anxious  labor ;  yet 
not  likely  to  attract  public  attention,  nor  even  to  be  known 
beyond  the  precincts  of  the  University.  Again,  he  be 
lieved  that  all  improvements  in  the  college,  to  be  of  much 
solidity,  must  have  their  foundation  in  its  improved  moral 
and  religious  condition.  No  president  ever  labored  more 
assiduously  or  more  anxiously  for  this  end,  nor,  consider 
ing  the  time  occupied,  with  more  success.  Indeed,  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  it  is  for  the  measures  he  insti 
tuted  or  suggested  with  a  view  to  promote  the  moral 
elevation  of  the  college,  that  its  friends  have  most  reason 
to  hold  him  in  grateful  remembrance.  Yet  these  also 
were  matters  which,  from  their  very  nature,  did  not  admit 
of  display,  and  some  of  them  not  even  of  publicity ;  nay 
more,  in  the  beginning  they  were  not  unlikely  to  occasion 
some  degree  of  opposition  and  trouble. 

But  the  principal  cause  hindering  a  due  appreciation  of 
Mr.  Everett's  presidency  of  the  college,  brief  as  it  was,  is 
doubtless  this  very  brevity.  If  his  health  had  permitted 
him  to  retain  the  office  ten  years,  I  have  no  doubt  that 
many  things  which  were  offensive  to  him  would  have 
disappeared.  His  attention,  meanwhile,  would  have  been 
turned  to  proper  academical  reforms,  noticeable  in  them 
selves,  and  bringing  the  college  into  notice  by  extending 
its  influence  and  fame.  And  this,  together  with  the  just 
pride  taken  in  his  distinguished  name,  and  the  unsur 
passed  dignity  with  which  he  represented  the  University 
on  all  public  occasions,  would  have  made  his  adrninistra- 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  65 

tion  forever  illustrious  in  the  annals  of  the  college ;  and 
even,  within  its  limited  scope,  as  illustrious  for  him  as  any 
other  part  of  his  public  career.  Nor  is  this  all.  It  would 
then  have  been  seen  that  the  first  four  years,  those  which 
we  really  had,  were  an  appropriate  and  necessary  intro 
duction  to  the  whole ;  and  as  such,  they  would  have  come 
in  for  their  full  share  of  the  glory. 


Dr.   Holmes  read  the  following  Poem  :  — 


OUR  FIRST   CITIZEN. 

WINTER'S  cold  drift  lies  glistening  o'er  his  breast ; 

For  him  no  spring  shall  bid  the  leaf   unfold  ; 
What  Love  could  speak,  by  sudden  grief  oppressed, 

What  swiftly  summoned  Memory  tell,  is  told. 

Even  as  the  bells,  in  one  consenting  chime, 
Filled  with  their  sweet  vibrations  all  the  air, 

So  joined  all  voices,  in  that  mournful  time, 
His  genius,  wisdom,  virtues,  to  declare. 

What  place  is  left   for  words  of  measured  praise, 
Till  calm-eyed  History,  with  her  iron  pen, 

Grooves  in  the  unchanging  rock  the  final  phrase 
That  shapes  his  image  in  the  souls  of  men? 

Yet  while  the  echoes  still  repeat  his  name, 

While  countless  tongues  his  full-orbed  life  rehearse, 

Love,  by  his  beating  pulses  taught,  will  claim 

The  breath  of  song,  the  tuneful  throb  of  verse, — 


66  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

Verse  that,  in  ever-changing  ebb  and  flow, 

Moves,  like  the  laboring  heart,  with  rush  and  rest, 

Or  swings  in  solemn  cadence,  sad  and  slow, 
Like  the  tired  heaving  of  a  grief-worn  breast. 

This  was  a  mind  so  rounded,  so  complete,  — 
No  partial  gift  of  Nature  in  excess,  — 

That,  like  a  single  stream  where  many  meet, 
Each  separate  talent  counted  something  less. 

A  little  hillock,  if  it  lonely  stand, 

Holds  o'er  the  fields  an  undisputed  reign, 

While  the  broad  summit  of  the  table-land 
Seems  with  its  belt  of  clouds  a  level  plain. 

Servant  of  all  his  powers,  that  faithful  slave, 
Unsleeping  Memory,  strengthening  with  his  toils, 

To  every  ruder  task  his  shoulder  gave, 
And  loaded  every  day  with  golden  spoils. 

Order,  the  law  of  Heaven,  was  throned  supreme 
O'er  action,  instinct,  impulse,  feeling,  thought ; 

True  as  the  dial's  shadow  to  the  beam, 

Each  hour  was  equal  to  the  charge  it  brought. 

Too  large  his  compass  for  the  nicer  skill 

That  weighs  the  world  of  science  grain  by  grain  ; 

All  realms  of  knowledge  owned  the  mastering  will 
That  claimed  the  franchise  of   his  whole  domain. 

Earth,  air,  sea,  sky,  the  elemental  fire, 

Art,  history,  song,  —  what  meanings  lie  in  each 

Found  in  his  cunning  hand  a  stringless  lyre, 

And  poured  their  mingling  music  through  his  speech. 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD    EVERETT.  67 

Thence  flowed  those  anthems  of  our  festal  days, 

Whose  ravishing  division  held  apart 
The  lips  of  listening  throngs  in  sweet  amaze, 

Moved  in  all  breasts  the  self-same  human  heart. 

Subdued  his  accents,  as  of  one  who  tries 

To  press  some  care,  some  haunting  sadness  down  ; 

His  smile  half  shadow  ;    and  to  stranger  eyes 
The  kingly  forehead  wore  an  iron  crown. 

He  was  not  armed  to  wrestle  with  the  storm, 
To  fight  for  homely  truth  with  vulgar  power ; 

Grace  looked  from  every  feature,  shaped  his  form,  — 
The  rose  of  Academe,  —  the  perfect  flower  ! 

Such  was  the  stately  scholar  whom  we  knew 

In  those  ill  days  of   soul-enslaving  calm, 
Before  the  blast  of  Northern  vengeance  blew 

Her  snow-wreathed  pine  against  the  Southern  palm. 

Ah,   God  forgive  us  !    did  we  hold  too  cheap 

The  heart  we  might  have  known,   but  would  not  see, 

And  look  to  find  the  nation's  friend  asleep 
Though  the  dread  hour  of   her  Gethsemane? 

That  wrong  is  past ;  we  gave  him  up  to  Death 

With  all  a  hero's  honors  round  his  name  ; 
As  martyrs  coin  their  blood,   he  coined  his  breath, 

And  dimmed  the  scholar's  in  the  patriot's  fame. 

So  shall  we  blazon  on  the  shaft  we  raise,  — 

Telling  our  grief,   our  pride,  to  unborn  years,  — 

"  He  who  had  lived  the  mark  of  all  men's  praise 
Died  with  the  tribute  of  a  nation's  tears." 


68  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

The  Hon.  Richard  H.  Dana  then  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  This  full  tide  of  grief  and  admiration 
has  carried  along  with  it  all  there  is  of  eulogy,  and  there 
seems  nothing  left  for  me  to-night  —  not  wishing  to  say 
over  what  has  been  so  well  said  —  but  a  single,  common 
place  suggestion,  exciting  no  feeling,  and  entirely  below 
the  demands  of  the  hour.  I  would  simply  remind  you, 
brethren,  that  the  fame  of  Mr.  Everett  has  been  fairly 
earned. 

It  seems  to  me  that  he  has  earned  his  fame  as  fairly  as 
the  painter,  the  poet,  the  sculptor,  and  the  composer  earn 
theirs.  The  artist  submits  his  picture  or  statue,  the 
composer  his  oratorio,  and  the  poet  his  epic  or  lyric  to 
the  judgment  of  time,  and  abides  the  result.  Mr. 
Everett,  for  fifty  years,  year  by  year,  submitted  to  the 
judgment  of  his  age  orations,  essays,  lectures,  speeches, 
and  diplomatic  letters,  and  abided  the  result.  If  the 
judgment  has  been  favorable  to  him,  what  can  have  been 
more  fairly  earned  I 

It  has  not  only  been  earned  without  fraud  on  the  public 
judgment,  or  mistake  or  accident,  but  it  has  been  earned 
in  strict  compliance  with  the  primeval  law  of  labor — that 
in  the  sweat  of  the  brow  all  bread  shall  be  eaten.  It  has 
not  been  the  result  of  a  few  happy  strokes  of  genius.  He 
never  did  anything  except  with  all  the  might  his  mind 
and  body  could  lend  to  it.  He  was  first  scholar  at  Har 
vard,  because  four  years  of  competition  left  him  so.  If 
he  was  in  anything  more  learned  than  other  men,  it  was 
because  he  did  his  best  with  great  natural  powers.  No 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  69 

occasions  occurred  to  him  that  may  not  occur  to  all. 
What  other  men  made  little  of,  he  made  everything  of. 
He  never  trusted  to  genius  or  to  chance.  He  owes  as 
little,  too,  as  any  man,  to  the  posts  he  has  filled.  Many 
derive  importance  from  holding  offices  that  connect 
them  with  great  events.  He  stands  upon  his  work,  irre 
spective  of  office  ;  and,  indeed,  his  best  and  brightest  acts 
have  been  those  of  a  private  citizen.  Yes,  brethren, 
every  stone  in  the  monument  he  has  builded  to  himself 
has  been  quarried,  fashioned,  and  polished  by  his  own 
hand  and  eye. 

Fairly  earned,  his  fame  is  also  firmly  fixed.  His  style 
of  thought  and  expression  in  written  address  has  been 
tried  by  the  tests  of  novelty  and  of  familiarity,  of  same 
ness  and  of  variety,  in  old  communities  and  in  new 
communities ;  and  that  style  which  forty  years  before, 
in  its  freshness,  charmed  the  choice  spirits  of  a  critical 
community  of  readers  and  scholars,  was  found  in  its 
maturity,  nay,  almost  in  its  age,  equal  to  the  conflict 
with  the  trained  diplomatists  of  Europe,  before  the  forum 
of  nations. 

So  of  his  elocution.  An  orator  may,  by  accidental 
charm  of  voice  or  manner,  or  by  tricks  of  speech,  gain 
celebrity  for  a  time  ;  but  the  crucial  test  comes,  and  he  is 
found  wanting,  or  he  palls  and  stales  by  mere  custom. 
But  Mr.  Everett's  style  of  speech  has  been  tried  by 
every  test,  applied  to  every  variety  of  topic,  in  different 
countries,  and  has  survived  the  changes  and  chances  of 
taste  and  opinion,  as  potent  with  the  sons  and  daughters 
as  with  their  fathers  and  mothers.  At  threescore  and 


70  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

ten  the  spell  of  his  elocution  was  as  effective  as  in  the 
freshness  of  his  youth  or  the  vigor  of  his  manhood.  The 
eloquence  which  forty  and  fifty  years  ago  filled  Brattle 
Street  Church  to  the  window-tops,  which,  in  its  new-born 
beauty,  charmed  the  select  assemblages  at  Cambridge,  Con 
cord,  and  Plymouth,  was  found  in  its  gray  and  bent  age, 
equal  —  more  equal  than  any  other  —  to  the  exigencies 
and  shocks  of  the  most  vast  and  momentous  popular 
canvass  the  world  ever  knew. 

The  Hon.  B.  F.  Thomas  spoke  as  follows :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  If  I  had  consulted  my  own  judgment 
only,  it  would  have  been  to  listen  to  the  gentlemen  around 
me,  the  early,  the  life-long  companions  of  the  illustrious 
dead.  I  may  not  claim  to  have  been  of  Mr.  Everett's 
intimate  friends.  Though  I  have  met  him  occasionally 
in  private  life,  my  means  of  knowledge  are,  after  all, 
those  of  a  reader  and  hearer  of  his  public  discourse. 
Nor  have  I,  during  a  portion  of  his  public  life,  been 
drawn  to  him  by  ties  of  political  affinity  and  sympathy. 
Possibly,  following  the  courtesies  of  parliamentary  assem 
blies,  these  considerations  may  have  led  to  the  request 
that  I  should  say  a  word  this  evening. 

If  the  object  of  these  services  of  commemoration  were 
indiscriminate  eulogy,  the  custom  were  more  honored  in 
the  breach  than  in  the  observance ;  such  service  being 
good  neither  for  the  dead  nor  the  living.  If  we  had  no 
higher  or  nobler  purpose,  we  might  well  turn  to  the 
pressing  duties  of  life  and  of  the  hour,  and  let  the  dead 
bury  their  dead. 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  71 

But  if  we  believe  the  saying  of  an  old  historian,  cited 
by  Bolingbroke,  that  history  is  philosophy  teaching  by 
examples  ;  if,  rejecting  the  godless  speculations  of  Buckle, 
we  recognize  in  history  the  power  and  influence  of  the 
individual  spirit ;  if  we  see  in  the  lives  of  great  and  good 
men  not  only  beacon  lights  on  the  line  of  human  progress, 
but  the  most  efficient  of  motive  powers,  the  causes  caux- 
antes;  that  great  and  good  men  not  only  make  history,  but 
constitute  history,  and  the  best  part  of  history  ;  no  work 
can  be  more  appropriate  to  an  historical  society  than  the 
commemoration  of  such  a  life. 

As  you  well  observed,  Mr.  President,  the  other  day  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  in  a  speech,  let  me  say,  so  worthy  of  its 
theme,  one  knows  hardly  where  to  begin  or  where 
to  end.  If  we  had  but  one  word  to  say,  it  would  be  per 
haps  that  Mr.  Everett  was  the  most  accomplished  man 
our  country  had  produced ;  of  the  widest,  most  varied  and 
finished  culture.  That  using  the  word  "  orator,"  in  the 
sense  in  which  it  has  come  to  us  from  classic  times,  he  was 
our  most  finished  "  orator,"  in  fertility  of  resources,  in  apt 
ness  of  use  in  grace  of  manner,  in  compass  and  music  of 
voice,  in  curious  felicity  of  diction,  seldom  if  ever  surpassed. 
Not  always  evincing  magnetic  power  or  projectile  force, 
or  the  ars  artium  celare  artem  ;  but  in  his  best  and  happiest 
moods  recalling  the  lines  in  which  Milton,  with  such 
marvellous  beauty,  has  described  Adam,  wrapt,  entranced 
with  the  last  accents  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  Raphael :  — 

"  The  angel  ended ;    but  in  Adam's  ear 
So  chaiiniug  left  his  voice  that  he  awhile 
Thought  him  still  speaking  —  still  stood  fixed  to  hear." 


72  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTOKICAL   SOCIETY. 

Though  it  was  as  a  graceful  and  eloquent  orator  that 
Mr.  Everett  was  most  widely  known  to  his  day  and  gener 
ation,  we  feel  that  in  saying  this  we  have  not  got  very  near 
to  our  subject ;  that  we  have  not  touched  upon  the  lines  of 
character  which  make  the  life  of  a  great  or  good  man  the 
worthy  subject  of  study  and  contemplation. 

Outside  of  revelation,  Mr.  President,  men  make  their 
own  gods.  They  project  them  from  within.  They  clothe 
them  with  their  own  passions,  they  dwarf  them  by  their 
own  infirmities.  So  it  is  in  the  construction  of  our  heroes 
and  great  men.  We  not  only  admire  chiefly  the  qualities 
in  which  we  discover  some  resemblance  to  our  own ;  but 
wre  are  very  apt  to  dwell  on  them  as  the  salient  points  of 
character.  We  insist  upon  casting  men  into  the  moulds 
of  our  own  minds.  This  may  be  natural,  but  it  is  neither 
manly  nor  just.  That  only  is  a  manly  and  catholic  criti 
cism  which  appreciates  and  admires  qualities  utterly 
diverse  from  our  own ;  which  recollects  that  our  antipodes 
stand  also  on  the  solid  earth ;  that  there  may  be  diversities 
of  gifts  but  the  same  spirit,  differences  of  administration 
but  the  same  Lord  ;  that  the  eye  cannot  say  to  the  hand, 
I  have  no  need  of  thee,  nor  the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have 
no  need  of  you;  that  this  diversity  of  gifts  and  tendencies 
is  part  of  God's  economy  for  the  well-being  and  progress 
of  the  race. 

It  is  by  the  conflict  and  balance  of  forces  that  the  plan 
ets  know  their  places  and  "  each  in  his  motion  like  an 
angel  sings."  A  like  conflict  and  balance  of  forces  is  the 
law  of  human  life  and  progress.  In  the  shallow  philoso 
phy  of  Pope,  there  is  not  a  shallower  commonplace,  than 


MEMOHIAL    OF   EDWARD    EVERETT.  73 

"  Just  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree's  inclined."  You  may 
twist  and  distort  the  growth  of  the  tree,  you  may  prune 
it  into  fantastic  shapes,  but  the  tree  as  God  meant  it  to  be 
lies  wrapt  in  the  germ,  before  the  warm  embrace  of  earth 
sends  it  up  to  greet  the  sun.  The  natural  differences  of 
men  overcome  and  outgrow  all  culture  and  discipline. 
These  two  sons  of  the  same  parents,  bred  at  the  same 
fireside,  trained  in  the  same  schools,  surrounded  by  the 
same  influences,  ripened  into  manhood,  the  one  shall  be 
come  in  politics  a  radical,  the  other  a  conservative.  In  re 
ligion  one  shall  be  the  most  protesting  of  protestants,  the 
other  repose  with  a  child's  trust  on  the  bosom  of  the  church. 

In  all  free  governments  political  parties  are  formed, 
and  though  they  spring  up  sometimes  for  local  and 
temporary  purposes,  yet  as  a  general  fact  and  in  their 
last  analysis,  they  will  be  found  to  be  radical  and  con 
servative,  the  one  having  progress  as  its  constant  aim, 
the  other  dwelling  upon  the  limitations  of  progress. 

In  the  best  sense  of  the  word  Mr.  Everett  was  a  con 
servative.  No  man  more  thoroughly  understood  or  more 
fully  appreciated  the  free  institutions  which  the  toils  and 
sacrifices  of  good  and  wise  and  true  men  of  twenty  gen 
erations  had  secured  to  us.  He  had  faith  that  whatever 
of  error  and  imperfection  was  to  be  found  in  the  work 
of  the  fathers  would  be  removed  by  peaceful  methods, 
by  the  progress  of  science,  and  art,  and  Christian  cul 
ture  and  civilization.  With  his  conservatism  was  found 
a  broad,  liberal,  and  catholic  spirit.  Bred  in  the  extreme 
school  of  Protestantism,  he  did  not  understand  by  liberal 
Christianity  the  negation  of  things  divine,  the  bowing  of 


74  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

religion  out  of  the  circle  of  the  human  mind.  He  did 
not  exclude  from  his  idea  of  mental  liberty  the  "  liberty 
of  obedience  ; "  the  liberty  with  which  Christ  makes  men 
free. 

Bred  in  the  school  of  the  Puritans,  illustrating  their 
virtues,  admiring  their  sublime  devotion  to  duty,  he  could 
not  have  loved  Puritanism  the  less  because  it  was  asso 
ciated  with  the  venerable  past,  because  time  had  softened 
and  hallowed  its  more  rugged  features,  because  distance 
lent  enchantment  to  the  view. 

Bred  in  a  school  of  politics,  which,  though  of  the  high 
est  integrity,  had  strong  sectional  tendencies,  he  was 
among  the  most  national  of  our  statesmen.  No  part  of 
the  land  was  shut  out  from  his  sympathy  and  regard. 
His  patriotism  covered  the  country,  however  bounded. 
No  word  dropped  from  his  lips  or  pen  to  promote  sec 
tional  hate  or  strife.  His  public  life  was  a  ministry  of 
concord  and  peace.  He  understood  the  compromises  of 
the  Constitution,  and  was  ready  faithfully  to  abide  by 
them.  He  appreciated  and  admired  this  marvellous  frame 
of  government,  by  which,  for  the  first  time  in  history, 
central  power  was  reconciled  with  local  independence,  the 
immunities  of  free  States  with  the  capacities  of  a  great 
empire.  From  the  first  to  the  last,  through  evil  report 
and  through  good  report,  he  clung  to  the  Union  of  these 
States  and  to  the  Constitution  as  its  only  bond.  No  man 
labored  more  earnestly  and  devotedly  to  avert  the  coming 
strife.  His  dread  of  civil  conflict  seemed  to  wear  at  times 
almost  the  aspect  of  timidity.  But  if  he  felt  more  strongly 
it  was  because  he  foresaw  more  clearly. 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  75 

No  greater  injustice  can  be  done  to  Mr.  Everett,  than 
by  the  suggestion  that  in  the  last  three  or  four  years  of 
his  life  his  opinions  had  undergone  a  radical  change,  and 
that  the  services  of  the  past  three  years  were  a  sort  of 
propitiation  and  atonement  for  those  that  had  gone  before. 
Some  of  the  views  of  public  policy  developed  by  Mr. 
Everett  within  the  last  two  years  did  not  command  my 
assent.  That  was  equally  true  with  some  of  his  earlier 
opinions.  But  I  can  see  no  necessary  conflict  between 
Mr.  Everett  the  conservative  statesman,  the  life-long  de 
fender  of  the  Union  and  the  Constitution,  and  Mr.  Everett 
the  ardent  supporter  of  a  war  to  secure  from  destruction 
that  Union  and  Constitution.  Difference  of  judgment  as 
to  what  might  be  effected  by  force  of  arms  might  be  the 
result  of  changes  in  the  condition  of  the  country,  in  the 
unity  of  sentiment  and  action  in  the  loyal  States.  What 
seemed  to  him  impossible  in  1861,  might,  from  the  success 
of  our  arms,  seem  feasible  in  186-4.  So  measures  that  he 
deemed  to  be  impolitic  at  the  first  period  might  seem  to 
him  to  be  demanded  by  the  necessities  of  the  second. 
Those  differences  marked  no  radical  change  of  principles  ; 
and  one,  who  differed  from  him  on  some  few  questions  of 
policy  while  adhering  to  his  general  views,  may  be 
pardoned  a  word  to  save  him  from  the  too  great  kindness 
of  his  later  friends. 

Honor,  as  the  heart  shall  prompt,  his  labors  to  uphold 
the  arm  of  government  against  secession,  to  give  unity  to 
its  counsels  and  efforts,  to  bring  all  men  to  its  standard. 
We  may  honor  none  the  less  a  life  given  to  what  his 
nephew  and  my  friend  has  fitly  called  the  ministry  of 


76  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

conciliation,  to  the  victories  of  peace.  Nor  will  we  forget 
how,  at  the  first  glimpse  of  opportunity,  he  turned  to  his 
first  love ;  how,  when  the  cry  of  suffering  came  from  a 
conquered  city,  his  heart  went  out  to  meet  and  to  help  it ; 
how  naturally  he  recurred  to  the  power  of  Christian  sym 
pathies  and  kindness  ;  how  the  blessed  words  of  the 
royal  preacher  of  Israel  sprung  to  his  lips,  "  If  thine 
enemy  hunger,  feed  him  ;  if  he  thirst,  give  him  drink." 

Blessed  close  of  a  great  and  good  life.  Blessed  privi 
lege  to  forget  for  a  moment  the  horrors  and  glories  even 
of  war,  the  shouts  and  waving  banners  of  triumph,  to  sit 
again  at  the  feet  of  the  Divine  Master,  to  lean  upon  his 
bosom,  to  be  kindled  by  and  to  radiate  his  divine  love. 

Hon.  James  Savage  made  the  following  remarks  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT:  I  am  a  little  surprised  to  be  called  up  ; 
and  yet,  sir,  as  the  catalogue  of  the  Society  shows.  Mr. 
Everett's  name  stood  next  to  mine,  I  hope  I  may  be  ex 
cused  if  the  infirmity  of  age  is  more  apparent  than  any 
thing  else  in  what  I  say.  I  can  refer  to  the  early  days  of 
Mr.  Everett,  which  has  not  been  more  than  once  alluded 
to,  and  that  before  he  had  adopted  the  resolution  of  taking 
the  profession  of  a  preacher  of  the  Everlasting  Gospel. 
In  this  he  was  most  eminently  successful,  and  before  that 
I  remember  well,  sir,  that  the  boy  was  father  to  the  man. 

No  one  who  then  looked  at  him  and  heard  him,  would 
have  failed  to  foretell  the  success  which  attended  him.  Of 
Mr.  Everett,  I  supposse  it  can  be  said  as  of  other  men, 
that  he  touched  nothing  that  he  did  not  adorn.  I  cannot 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD    EVERETT.  77 

give  you  the  Latin,  sir,  but  it  is  one  of  the  very  strong 
illustrations  of  human  grace  and  felicity.  It  was  very 
observable.  When  I  was  in  England  I  had  the  advantage 
of  great  attention  from  Mr.  Everett.  When  their  chief 
statesman,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  was  suddenly  stricken  down 
by  instant  death  —  and  when  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen, 
another  great  friend  of  our  country,  succeeded  him,  con 
tinuing  to  maintain  all  our  just  rights  consistent  with  the 
rights  of  his  own  country,  —  I  had  the  advantage  of 
meeting  at  Mr.  Everett's,  more  than  once  or  twice,  some 
of  the  first  gentlemen  of  England,  chiefly  official  persons, 
and  there  to  observe  that  no  man  of  their  own  country 
was  more  attended  to  or  less  inclined  to  presume  upon 
that  attention.  He  seemed  to  be  always  the  servant  of 
the  public  in  private  as  well  as  in  public.  I  believe  that 
our  country  has  never  had  a  superior  minister  anywhere 
at  any  court.  I  only  wish  that  our  present  representative, 
my  younger  friend,  may  make  Mr.  Everett's  place  good. 

Hon.   Emory  Washburn  addressed  the  meeting  as  follows:  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  shall  not  presume,  in  such  a  pres 
ence,  to  speak  of  Mr.  Everett  as  a  scholar,  for  I  should 
feel  that,  by  so  doing,  I  was  trespassing  upon  ground 
which  would  be  so  much  more  properly  occupied  by 
others.  Nor  will  the  time  allotted  me,  admit  of  my  dwell 
ing  upon  the  prominent  part  which  he  has  taken  in  the 
historic  events  of  the  last  thirty  years  of  his  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  cannot  pretend  to  that  intimate 
relation  in  the  associations  with  him  with  which  I  have 
been  favored,  which  would  justify  my  attempting  to  draw 

26 


78  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

the  nicejL'  shades  of  character  which  intimacy  alone  en 
ables  one  to  analyze  and  trace.  The  most  I  can  hope  to 
do,  is  to  give,  in  general  terms,  the  results  upon  my  own 
mind  of  the  observation  of  more  than  forty  years,  chiefly, 
of  his  public  life.  And  yet  I  have  too  often  shared  in 
his  acts  of  personal  kindness  and  courtesy,  not  to  feel  that 
I  have  a  right  to  speak,  also,  of  some  of  those  traits  of 
private  character  which  stand  out  so  prominently  in  the 
history  of  his  life. 

The  impression  which  my  study  and  observation  of  Mr. 
Everett's  career  have  left  most  strongly  denned  upon  my 
own  mind,  is  its  harmony  and  completeness  in  all  its  parts 
and  characteristic  qualities.  In  no  field  of  honor  or  use 
fulness  which  he  was  called  upon  to  occupy,  did  he  ever 
fail  to  meet  its  reasonable  requirements,  nor  did  he  ever 
shrink  from  the  labor  which  its  duties  imposed.  Many 
men  have  been  great  in  one  department  of  intellectual 
power  or  excellence,  without  possessing  any  claims  to 
distinction  in  any  other.  Some  cultivate  one  set  of  their 
powers  or  faculties,  at  the  expense  of  the  others.  And  of 
many,  the  judgments  which  we  form,  are  but  the  balanc 
ing  of  one  quality  against  another,  the  good  against  the 
evil,  in  order  to  ascertain  at  what  point  in  the  scale  of 
moral  worth  we  are  to  place  them,  in  the  estimate  which 
we  form  of  their  character.  The  great  warrior  may  be 
the  brutal  tyrant  or  the  sordid  miser.  The  brilliant  poet 
may  not  soar  above  thxe  atmosphere  of  his  own  vices,  and 
the  splendid  orator  while  arousing  and  wielding  the  pas 
sions  of  others,  at  his  will,  may  be  the  veriest  slave  of 
his  own.  Examples  like  these  serve  to  mark  the  contrast 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  79 

of  good  and  evil  which  are  found  in  so  many  of  the  men 
whom  the  world  has  called  famous. 

But  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Everett,  we  seek,  in  vain,  for  any 
such  contrasts  as  these.  It  was  not  because  there  were 
not,  in  the  constitution  of  his  mind  and  character,  prominent 
and  striking  qualities,  but  because  there  was  no  occasion 
to  go  through  the  process  of  balancing  these  qualities 
against  each  other,  in  order  to  determine  the  relative  rank 
of  merit  in  which  he  is  hereafter  to  be  held  in  the  judgment 
of  posterity.  His  character  in  this  respect  was  homoge 
neous  in  its  elements,  and  complete,  as  well  in  its  parts,  as 
in  the  relations  of  these  to  each  other. 

That  which  must  have  struck  every  one  who  knew  Mr. 
Everett  as  worthy  of  special  notice,  was  the  filling  up,  if  I 
may  so  say,  which  gave  to  his  life  and  character  that 
roundness  of  proportion  which  renders  it  difficult,  as  we 
now  look  upon  it,  to  say  which  of  the  traits  for  which  he 
was  distinguished,  stand  out  most  prominently  upon  the 
canvas.  The  picture  is  therefore  in  danger  of  being 
indistinct,  from  the  absence  of  shade  by  which  to  bring 
out  its  features  into  bolder  relief.  He  was  the  scholar  at 
the  same  time  that  he  was  the  orator  of  the  pulpit  and  of 
the  senate.  He  was  the  statesman  and  the  diplomatist, 
the  administrative  officer,  and,  for  many  years  of  his  life, 
the  leading  citizen  in  all  the  land.  He  was  the  Christian 
gentleman  and  the  patriot;  —  and  he  won  in  them  all,  the 
respect  and  admiration  of  the  country.  And  yet,  who  is 
now  ready  to  say  in  which  of  these  he  transcended  his 
own  excellence  in  any  other  trait  into  which  his  character 
may  be  divided?  Had  he  been  either  of  these  alone, 


80  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

there  would  have  been,  in  the  graces  and  accomplish 
ments  which  he  would  have  brought  to  its  duties,  enough 
to  have  given  to  his  life  in  that  sphere,  the  seeming 
finish  of  completeness.  This  is  what  I  mean  by  that 
filling  up  which  gave  such  an  admirable  fulness  and 
consistency  of  proportion,  in  his  character  and  life. 

I  might  illustrate  this  thought  further  by  referring  to 
what  is  familiar,  perhaps,  to  us  all.  It  is  more  than  forty 
years  since  I  first  heard  him  in  the  pulpit.  I  need  not 
say  with  how  much  delight  I  listened  to  the  rich  and 
varied  thought,  the  beauty  of  diction,  the  inimitable  power 
of  description,  the  affluence  of  illustration,  and  the  pathos 
of  appeal  which  gave  so  much  life  to  his  sermons  of  that 
day.  These  qualities  of  high  pulpit  oratory  may  not 
have  been  peculiar  to  him.  But  there  was  added  to 
these,  a  beauty  of  countenance,  a  grace  in  action,  a 
sweetness  in  voice,  and  an  impressive,  though  almost 
measured  modulation  in  tone  and  cadence,  which  left 
upon  the  mind  of  the  hearer  the  conviction  that  he  was 
unsurpassed  as  a  rhetorician  and  an  orator. 

I  afterwards  heard  him  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  and 
there  he  was  no  less  at  home  than  in  the  pulpit.  And 
the  dignity  of  his  bearing,  the  mastery  he  showed  of  his 
subject,  and  the  eloquence  of  the  language  he  uttered, 
commanded  the  willing  attention  of  that  body,  while"  it 
was  yet  dignified  by  men  of  eloquence  and  a  national 
fame. 

We  all  know  how  faithfully  and  conscientiously  he 
performed  the  duties  of  the  Executive  of  this  Common 
wealth.  Nothing  was  left  undone  which  courtesy,  or 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  81 

kindness,  or  etiquette,  claimed  at  his  hand,  from  patiently 
listening  to  the  broken  language  of  the  wife  or  mother 
pleading  for  the  pardon  of  a  wayward  husband  or  son,  to 
those  dignified  state  papers  which  came  from  his  pen 
perfect  in  all  their  parts.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
manner  in  which  he  bore  himself  at  the  court  of  St. 
James,  and  as  successor  of  Mr.  Webster,  at  the  head  of 
our  American  court  at  Washington. 

And  in  this,  I  do  not  mean  to  refer  so  much  to  great 
exhibitions  of  skill  and  power  as  a  diplomatist  and  a 
statesman,  as  to  the  qualities  which  belonged  to  him  per 
sonally  as  a  man,  and  which  helped  to  grace  and  fill  up 
the  measure  of  his  official  character. 

But  this  character  for  completeness  to  which  I  have 
alluded,  may  perhaps  be  better  illustrated  in  the  personal 
qualities  which  he  exhibited  in  the  amenities  of  private 
life.  We  have  heard  him  called  cold  in  his  sympathies, 
and  ungenial  of  manners,  in  his  intercourse  with  others ; 
and  I  confess  that,  till  I  knew  him,  I  thought  his  seeming 
reserved,  if  not  austere.  But  I  need  not  say,  in  this 
presence,  how  soon  this  impression  was  corrected  when 
one  came  in  direct  contact  with  him,  either  socially,  or  in 
the  ordinary  intercourse  of  private  life.  There  was  in 
his  organization  something  of  that  shrinking  delicacy 
which  makes  one  apparently  shy  and  sensitive.  But  I 
will  venture  to  say,  that  no  one  ever  went  to  him  for 
kindness,  or  sympathy,  or  counsel,  and  found  him  either 
cold  or  repulsive. 

He  never  forgot  the  courtesies  of  the  gentleman  in  his 
intercourse  with  any  man,  however  humble  or  devoid  of 


82  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

influence  he  may  have  been.  He  never  was  surpassed  in 
the  scrupulous  punctuality  with  which  he  replied  to  a 
correspondent,  however  unimportant  the  subject  addressed 
to  him,  nor  in  the  indulgence  with  which  he  received 
and  the  kindness  with  which  he  acknowledged,  the  well 
intended  but  often  equivocal  favor  of  printed  works  and 
papers,  with  which  authors  loaded  his  table  and  taxed  his 
time  —  the  thing  he  was  the  least  able  to  spare. 

The  kindliness  of  his  nature  was  manifested  in  a 
hundred  different  forms,  though  rarely  so  as  to  attract  the 
observation  or  applause  of  others.  In  all  the  trying  situa 
tions  in  which  he  was  placed,  at  times,  censured  by  party 
antagonism,  misconstrued  in  his  motives  and  his  acts,  and 
smarting  under  the  keen  rebuke  of  public  disfavor,  I  do 
not  believe  any  one  ever  saw  him  lose  the  dignity  of  his 
self  possession,  or  heard  him  indulge  in  harsh  or  uncour- 
teous  language  towards  his  bitterest  opponent. 

Nor  will  the  world  ever  know  how  often  the  deserving 
young  man,  struggling  with  adverse  circumstances,  has 
found  in  him,  what  he  needed  more  than  money  —  a  wise 
counsellor  and  a  kind  friend.  Hundreds  could  now  tell 
us  how  he  sought  them  out,  aided  and  encouraged  them, 
and  helped  them  onward  in  a  career  of  usefulness  and 
honor.  While  his  body  lay  waiting  for  that  august 
solemnity  in  which  a  whole  city,  and,  I  might  add,  a  State 
and  Nation  bore  a  part,  the  door  bell  of  his  house  was 
rung,  and,  upon  its  being  opened,  there  stood  upon  the 
threshold  a  young  man,  a  stranger,  in  the  dress  of  a 
junior  officer  in  the  navy.  He  asked  permission  to  come 
in  and  look,  once  more,  upon  the  form  and  face  of  Mr. 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  83 

Everett.  "  I  am  a  stranger  to  you,"  said  he  to  the  gentle 
man  in  attendance,  "  but  Mr.  Everett  was  the  best  friend 
I  ever  had ;  he  procured  me  the  place  I  now  hold,  and 
from  that  day  has  never  failed  to  write  me  letters  of  en  - 
couragemcnt  and  advice,  although  I  had  no  claim  upon 
his  kindness  and  generosity." 

Of  his  affluence,  whether  of  wisdom  or  learning,  of 
worldly  gifts  or  kindly  consideration,  he  never  withheld, 
when  appealed  to  by  objects  of  merit  and  desert. 

I  desire  also  to  say  a  single  word  upon  another  en  or 
into  which  the  public  mind  may  have  naturally  fallen. 
Whatever  he  wrote  or  delivered  was,  uniformly,  so 
finished  and  perfect  in  style  and  language,  as  well  as  in 
thought,  that  an  impression  became  general  that  he  had 
little  ready  or  spontaneous  eloquence,  and  that,  in  order 
to  meet  an  occasion,  he  must  have  time  for  careful  prepa 
ration.  In  the  danger  which  he  had  to  contend  with,  of 
having  himself  for  a  rival,  he  was,  undoubtedly,  loth  to 
speak  without  previous  preparation.  But  his  friends 
knew  that  he  was  not  only  a  man  of  ready  and  stirrin"- 
eloquence,  but  that,  with  all  the  grave,  serious,  and  dig 
nified  manner  which  characterized  so  many  of  his  orations 
and  public  addresses,  he  had  a  fund  of  keen  and  sprightly 
wit,  of  playful  humor,  and  apt  and  gentle  repartee,  which, 
at  times,  electrified  the  hour,  and  delighted  whoever  was 
fortunate  enough  to  witness  them. 

It  might  seem  that  for  one  who,  through  a  long  period 
of  public  services,  had  shown  himself  worthy  to  hold  a 
place  in  the  foremost  rank,  nothing  could  be  needed  to 


84:  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

fill  up  and  round  out  a  life  of  so  much  active  usefulness 
and  honor. 

But  do  we  not  all  feel,  now,  how  much  it  would  have 
wanted,  if  it  had  lacked  the  finish  with  which  the  history  of 
the  last  four  years  has  crowned  and  completed  the  work  ? 
Nobody  had  a  right  to  doubt  the  honesty  and  sincerity  of 
his  convictions  and  opinions,  however  much  one  may 
have  differed  from  him  in  the  matters  of  public  policy. 
But  he  saw  the  coming  of  that  dreadful  storm  which  has 
been  sweeping  over  our  country,  and,  like  many  other 
true  patriots,  he  was  willing  to  avert  it  by  a  conciliatory 
policy,  though,  by  so  doing,  he  subjected  himself  to  the 
imputation  of  timidity  or  want  of  heart.  But  when  he 
saw  that  the  scheme  of  the  conspirators  was  not  to  secure 
the  rights  which  were  theirs,  but  to  usurp  those  to  which 
they  had  no  claim;  when  he  saw  that  the  purpose  at 
which  they  aimed  was  not  peace,  but  the  overthrow,  by 
war,  of  the  Government  under  which  our  country  had 
grown  great  and  prosperous  and  happy,  he  threw  the  full 
weight  of  his  accumulated  power  of  intellect  and  influ 
ence  into  the  struggle,  and,  in  the  forgetfulness  of  old 
opinions  and  cherished  associations,  he  gave  up  to  his 
country  the  stores  of  learning,  the  resources  of  eloquence, 
and  the  gathered  energies  of  an  entire  life  devoted  to 
diligence  and  duty.  Men  no  longer  called  him  timid,  for 
he  showed  that  he  had  that  highest  of  all  courage,  which 
dares  to  go  against  one's  own  prepossessions  and  uttered 
opinions,  when  in  the  light  of  present  events,  he  looks 
back  upon  the  unintentional  mistakes  of  the  past.  The 
nation,  the  world  itself  looked  on  with  admiration,  as  this 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  §5 

brave  old  champion  in  the  cause  of  right,  urged  on  the 
battle  by  his  trumpet  call  to  duty  and  to  arms.  And 
they  felt  that  his  record  was  complete,  his  life  rounded 
out  into  the  full  proportions  of  Christian  manliness, 
when  he  uttered  that  last  noble  appeal,  to  crown  the 
triumphs  of  a  nation's  success,  by  the  divine  magnanimity 
that  feeds  our  enemy  and  carries  him  comfort  in  the  hour 
of  prostration  and  distress. 

While  standing  upon  that  lofty  eminence  of  fame,  to 
which  a  long  and  arduous  life  of  noble  action  had 
raised  him,  it  was  a  kind  Providence  that  spared  him 
from  even  the  possibility  of  danger  of  any  coming  misap 
prehension  or  mistake.  He  laid  by  his  armor  before  the 
evening  shadows  had  dimmed  a  single  gleam  of  its  bright 
ness.  But  he  went  not  to  his  rest  till  his  last  day's  work 
was  fully  and  nobly  accomplished.  He  put  off  the  garb 
which  he  had  worn  amid  the  dust  and  toil  of  an  ever 
busy  life,  to  waken  to  a  new  existence  where,  while  the 
past  is  secure,  the  future  can  never  be  clouded  by  the 
passions  of  erring  nature,  or  the  frailties  of  human 
judgment. 

The  fame  which,  till  then,  had  been  in  his  own  keep 
ing,  he  left  in  charge  of  the  country  he  had  so  long 
served.  And  can  we  doubt  that  the  trust  will  be  sacredly 
kept  ?  They  will  rear  to  him  statues  and  monuments. 
And  they  will  do  more.  They  will  keep  these  monu 
ments  and  memorials  alive,  by  cherishing  the  memory 
of  the  man  to  whom  they  are  reared,  in  the  treasured 
offerings  of  a  nation's  history. 

It  will  be  but   another   illustration   of  the   immortality 


86  MASSACHUSETTS    HISTOKICAL   SOCIETY. 

which  the  fame  of  a  truly  great  man  lends  to  the  works 
of  art,  by  which  men  seek  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
the  dead.  The  chisel  of  the  artist  may  bring  out  from 
the  marble  the  form  and  features  of  one  whom  pride  or 
affection  may  seek  to  honor.  But  it  is,  at  last,  to  history 
that  we  must  look,  to  interpret  the  record  which  sculp 
ture  may  have  tried  to  register. 

You,  sir,  beautifully  reminded  us,  on  another  occasion, 
of  the  search  of  the  Roman  orator  amongst  the  rank 
weeds  and  gathered  rubbish  of  the  cemetery  of  Syracuse, 
for  the  forgotten  monument  of  Archimedes,  while  you 
reminded  his  countrymen  that  the  great  American  Philos 
opher  and  Statesman,  till  then,  had  no  memorial  of  art 
reared  to  him,  even  in  the  city  where  he  was  born. 
But  though  they  answered  that  appeal  with  a  generous 
alacrity,  the  enduring  bronze  of  which  his  speaking 
statue  is  fashioned  by  the  skilful  cunning  of  art,  would 
do  little  to  keep  his  memory  alive  for  the  service  of  pos 
terity,  if  his  name  had  not  been  enrolled  among  the  great 
names  that  shed  lustre  upon  the  pages  of  his  country's 
history. 

So  it  will  be  with  the  statue  which,  as  we  trust,  a 
gratified  people  will  place  by  the  side  of  his  great  com 
patriot,  in  the  front  of  our  Capitol.  It  is  fitting  that  it 
should  stand  there,  a  memorial,  immortal  in  the  light  of 
history,  of  the  man,  and  of  a  people's  gratitude.  The 
name  of  Everett,  repeated  to  the  inquirer  in  after  ages, 
will  reanimate  that  form,  and  it  will  speak  of  the  scholar, 
the  statesman,  the  orator,  the  patriot,  and  the  Christian 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  87 

gentleman,  to  whom  it  shall  have  been  reared  by  a  people 
that  knew,  and  loved,  and  honored  him. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Waterston  read  the  following  communication 
from  John  G.  Whittier,  introducing  the  letter  by  the  words  of  Dr. 
Channing,  who  said  of  Mr.  Whittier,  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago  :  "  His  poetry  bursts  from  the  soul  with  the  fire  and 
energy  of  an  ancient  prophet.  And  his  noble  simplicity  of  char 
acter  is  the  delight  of  all  who  know  him." 

AMESBURY,  27th  1st  Month,  1805. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  :  I  acknowledge  through  thee,  the 
invitation  of  the  standing  committee  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society  to  be  present  at  a  special  meeting  of 
the  Society  for  the  purpose  of  paying  a  tribute  to  tbe 
memory  of  our  late  illustrious  associate,  Edward  Everett. 

It  is  a  matter  of  deep  regret  to  me  that  the  state  of  my 
health  will  not  permit  me  to  be  with  you  on  an  occasion 
of  so  much  interest. 

It  is  most  fitting  that  the  members  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  Massachusetts  should  add  their  tribute  to  those 
which  have  been  already  offered  by  all  sects,  parties,  and 
associations,  to  the  name  and  fame  of  their  late  asso 
ciate.  He  was  himself  a  maker  of  history,  and  part  and 
parcel  of  all  the  noble  charities  and  humanizing  influ 
ences  of  his  State  and  time. 

When  the  grave  closed  over  him  who  added  new  lustre 
to  the  old  and  honored  name  of  Quincy,  all  eyes  instinc 
tively  turned  to  Edward  Everett  as  the  last  of  that  ven 
erated  class  of  patriotic  civilians  who,  outliving  all  dissent 
and  jealousy  and  party  prejudice,  held  their  reputation 


88  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

by  the  secure  tenure  of  the  universal  appreciation  of  its 
worth  as  a  common  treasure  of  the  republic.  It  is  not 
for  me  to  pronounce  his  eulogy.  Others,  better  qualified 
by  their  intimate  acquaintance  with  him,  have  done  and 
will  do  justice  to  his  learning,  eloquence,  varied  culture, 
and  social  virtues.  My  secluded  country  life  has  afforded 
me  few  opportunities  of  personal  intercourse  with  him, 
while  my  pronounced  radicalism,  on  the  great  question 
which  has  divided  popular  feeling,  rendered  our  political 
paths  widely  divergent.  Both  of  us  early  saw  the  danger 
which  threatened  the  country.  In  the  language  of  the 
prophet,  we  "  saw  the  sword  coming  upon  the  land,"  but 
while  he  believed  in  the  possibility  of  averting  it  by 
concession  and  compromise,  I,  on  the  contrary,  as  firmly 
believed  that  such  a  course  could  only  strengthen  and 
confirm  what  I  regarded  as  a  gigantic  conspiracy  against 
the  rights  and  liberties,  the  union  and  the  life,  of  the 
nation. 

Recent  events  have  certainly  not  tended  to  change  this 
belief  on  my  part ;  but  in  looking  over  the  past,  while  I 
see  little  or  nothing  to  retract  in  the  matter  of  opinion,  I 
am  saddened  by  the  reflection,  that  through  the  very 
intensity  of  my  convictions  I  may  have  done  injustice  to 
the  motives  of  those  with  whom  I  differed.  As  respects 
Edward  Everett,  it  seems  to  me  that  only  within  the  last 
four  years  I  have  truly  known  him. 

In  that  brief  period,  crowded  as  it  is  with  a  whole 
life-work  of  consecration  to  the  union,  freedom,  and 
glory  of  his  country,  he  not  only  commanded  respect 
and  reverence,  but  concentrated  upon  himself  in  a  most 


MEMORIAL    OF   EDWARD    EVERETT.  89 

remarkable  degree  the  love  of  all  loyal  and  generous 
hearts.  We  have  seen,  in  these  years  of  trial,  very  great 
sacrifices  offered  upon  the  altar  of  patriotism  —  wealth, 
ease,  home-love,  life  itself.  But  Edward  Everett  did 
more  than  this ;  he  laid  on  that  altar  not  only  his  time, 
talents,  and  culture,  but  his  pride  of  opinion,  his  long- 
cherished  views  of  policy,  his  personal  and  political 
predilections  and  prejudices,  his  constitutional  fastidious 
ness  of  conservatism,  and  the  carefully  elaborated  sym 
metry  of  his  public  reputation.  With  a  rare  and  noble 
magnanimity,  he  met,  without  hesitation,  the  demand  of 
the  great  occasion.  Breaking  away  from  all  the  beset- 
ments  of  custom  and  association,  he  forgot  the  things  that 
are  behind,  and,  with  an  eye  single  to  present  duty, 
pressed  forward  towards  the  mark  of  the  high  calling  of 
Divine  Providence  in  the  events  of  our  time.  All  honor 
to  him !  If  we  mourn  that  he  is  now  beyond  the  reach 
of  our  poor  human  praise,  let  us  reverently  trust  that  he 
has  received  that  higher  plaudit:  "Well  done,  thou  good 
and  faithful  servant !  " 

When  I  last  met  him,  as  my  colleague  in  the  Electoral 
College  of  Massachusetts,  his  look  of  health  and  vigor 
seemed  to  promise  us  many  years  of  his  wisdom  and 
usefulness.  On  greeting  him  I  felt  impelled  to  express 
my  admiration  and  grateful  appreciation  of  his  patriotic 
labors  ;  and  I  shall  never  forget  how  readily  and  grace 
fully  he  turned  attention  from  himself  to  the  great  cause 
in  which  we  had  a  common  interest,  and  expressed  his 
thankfulness  that  he  had  still  a  country  to  serve. 

To  keep  green  the  memory  of  such  a  man  is  at  once  a 


90  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL    SOCIETY. 

privilege  and  a  duty.  That  stainless  life  of  seventy  years 
is  a  priceless  legacy.  His  hands  were  pure.  The  shadow 
of  suspicion  never  fell  on  him.  If  he  erred  in  his 
opinions  (and  that  he  did  so,  he  had  the  Christian  grace 
and  courage  to  own),  no  selfish  interest  weighed  in  the 
scale  of  his  judgment  against  truth. 

As  our  thoughts  follow  him  to  his  last  resting-place, 
we  are  sadly  reminded  of  his  own  touching  lines,  written 
many  years  ago  at  Florence.  The  name  he  has  left 
behind  is  none  the  less  "  pure "  that  instead  of  being 
"  humble,"  as  he  then  anticipated,  it  is  on  the  lips  of 
grateful  millions,  and  written  ineffaceably  on  the  record 
of  his  country's  trial  and  triumph :  — 

"  Yet  not  for  me  when  I  shall  fall  asleep 
Shall  Santa  Croce's  lamps  their  vigils  keep; 
Beyond  the  main  in  Auburn's  quiet  shade, 
With  those  I  loved  and  love  my  couch  be  made  ;  — 
Spring's  pendent  branches  o'er  the  hillock  wave, 
And  morning's  dewdrops  glisten  on  my  grave, 
While  Heaven's  great  arch  shall  rise  above  my  bed, 
When  Santa  Croce's  crumbles  on  her  dead  — 
Unknown  to  erring  or  to  suffering  fame, 
So  I  may  leave  a  pure  though  humble  name  " 

Congratulating  the  Society  on  the  prospect  of  the  speedy 
consummation   of    the    great   objects   of  our    associate's 
labors — the  peace  and  permanent  union  of  our  country, — 
I  am  very  truly  thy  friend, 

JOHN  G.  WHITTIER 
ROBERT  C.  WATERSTON,  BOSTON. 
The  meeting  then  adjourned. 


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